Holiday Cyber Shopping

Black Friday’s results were an encouragement to American retailers. Sales grew a whopping .05%. Okay, strike “whopping.” Still, considering the poor state of the economy, not too shabby. But the real news is what happened online. There, sales were up 11%. That’s a hefty $595 million. Pretty “whopping.”

Rather than queuing up in your long johns in some frosty parking lot waiting for Walmart’s doors to open, the smart customers pointed and clicked through their Christmas lists. They filled up their cyber shopping carts and checked out without standing in a single line. Plus, they did this all in the toasty comfort of their own homes.

Forecasters believe that Black Friday is just the tip of the iceberg. Trends indicate that online shopping begins to go through the roof on the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend. These emerging trends in holiday shopping reveal how consumers are deepening their love affair with the Internet. Now is the time for marketers to put their brand where the customers are lining up: the Web. You don’t have to have an e-commerce site to see results. Look at social media. A recent survey indicates that Facebook, Twitter and customer reviews are some of the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009). Leveraging social media can improve your organic rankings on search engines, populate the Internet with positive product reviews and even raise the click-through rates of your online banner ads.

Today, having a marketing plan that wisely utilizes the Web is essential in both building your brand and building demand. Marketers who embrace this trend will reap the dividends. Those who don’t will be, like that midnight line in the Walmart parking lot, left out in the cold.