Early figures on the number of online shoppers and the level of sales this holiday season are coming in. They are looking positive but there are a few implications that should not be overlooked.
The early online shopping numbers for the 2005 holiday season are unquestionably good. According to figures just released by comScore Networks, sales from November 1st to December 21st totalled $17.5 billion, a 24% increase over the same period last year.
The "Holiday eSpending Report," from Nielsen//NetRatings, Goldman Sachs and Harris Interactive reported similar figures, finding that from October 29th to December 25th holiday spending reached $25 billion, a 25% increase over last year's numbers.
In addition, the report found that 54% of online shoppers had finished buying by December 16th. Conversely, by December 16th 10% had not even begun to shop.
Apparel was the number one category with $4.7 billion in sales. Hardware and computer peripherals and consumer electronics each accounted for $3.7 billion in sales. Books and toys/video games made the top five product categories, accounting for $2.2 billion and $1.4 billion in sales respectively.
The report also found that the majority of holiday shoppers were satisfied with their shopping experiences. Overall 70% said felt "very" or "somewhat satisfied." Only 5% said they were either "very dissatisfied" or "somewhat dissatisfied."
These finding do not, however, jibe with a study from ForeSee Results. That firm's "Holiday Shopping Satisfaction Benchmark" study found that the week of December 12th through 18th saw a fall in customer satisfaction of 0.6 percentage points to a satisfaction score of 77.8%. Not a horrendous drop, but a trend in the wrong direction.
Two other attitude measures dipped during the same period. Customer propensity to return to a retailer's site fell 0.8% and the likelihood for an online shopper to recommend an e-commerce site fell 0.6%.
"We saw a similar dip in overall satisfaction, search and ordering process last year, so this isn't a surprise," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results. "As we approach the holiday shipping deadline, pressured online shoppers are having a tougher time of finding the products they want and ordering the merchandise in time."
By contrast, this Fall there has been a slow, but steady increase in overall customer satisfaction with online retail sites.
When it comes to making the online shopping experience better, e-tailers have to be aware of shoppers don't like about online shopping.
A new survey from Hostway discovered that consumers' major peeves about retail websites were pop-up advertising (34.9%), registration log-on pages (16.7%), software installation (15.7%) and slow-loading pages (9.1%).
More than 70% of consumers in the survey reported that they were unlikely to purchase from, or even return to, a website after encountering these annoyances. Since only 25% would bother to report they were upset by the tactics, online retailers are often unaware of the fact that they are losing business.
Or, as Ecommerce Times wrote: "[These] results might be bad news for businesses that rely on these tactics to encourage, track or engage their current and potential customers."
For more helpful information on this subject, read eMarketer's Targeting Online Customers report.
