For the holiday season to date (the first 23 days of the November-December season) $8.19 billion has been spent in online retail (non-travel)—an unprecedented 4% decline from the $8.51 billion spent during corresponding shopping days last year, according to comScore.
“With consumer confidence low and disposable income tight, the first weeks of November have been very disappointing, with online retail spending declining versus year ago,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It’s also likely that some budget-conscious consumers are planning to wait to buy until later in the season to take advantage of retailers’ even more aggressive discounting.”
Holiday Online Retail Spending Forecast
comScore forecasts that holiday online retail spending for the whole of the November-December period will be flat from last year’s season—significantly lower than last year’s 19% growth rate and below the retail e-commerce growth rate of 9% observed for year-to-date 2008.Assuming the stock market doesn’t deteriorate materially during the season and that there is no apocalyptic news of major financial institutions, manufacturers or retailers failing, we should see online spending growth inch back towards positive as we get deeper into the season,” said Fulgoni.
Holiday Online-Shopping Survey
Alongside its reporting of behaviorally monitored e-commerce spending, comScore is conducting weekly surveys of approximately 500 consumers to determine holiday-shopping attitudes and sentiment.
One-third (33%) of consumers surveyed Nov. 21-24 said they had not even begun their holiday shopping.Consumer also intend to cut back on holiday spending in several ways, most notably by buying fewer gifts (47% of respondents) and buying less expensive gifts (46% of respondents)
Respondents also said they planned to employ the internet to help cut costs by taking advantage of free shipping and/or no sales tax (39%). The retail industry is increasingly turning to social networking sites as a new means of connecting with customers. Facebook, which reports more than 200 million active users worldwide, is especially popular with retailers.
Although Facebook was founded in 2004 as a service for registered Harvard University students only, it has since expanded to become a completely open service and says its fastest-growing age category of users is 35 and up. When Retailer Daily reviewed the Facebook pages of Aeropostale, Papa John’s and Sears in April 2009, the primary retail application for Facebook was simple branding.
Earlier this year, most Facebook pages contained some unique coupons, promotional videos and customer-generates content, but were primarily extensions of branding performed on retailers’ existing websites. True e-commerce functionality was provided through links back to retailers’ transactional websites, and most promotional features were static photos and videos.
Judging by the Facebook pages of the three retailers Retailer Daily is reviewing for the third quarter of 2009: 1-800-Flowers.com, Charlotte Russe, and Netflix, this is starting to change. 1-800-Flowers.com in particular is raising the social networking bar by offering actual e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page, while Charlotte Russe and Netflix use Facebook applications to help customers collaboratively share ideas and product information. Highlights from these three retailers’ Facebook pages follow.
1-800-Flowers.com
1-800-Flowers.com, with 3,584 fans as of September 10, 2009, is a rare retailer which offers full e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page. A shop tab leads users directly to a Facebook storefront where they can browse, select and purchase items from a product assortment of roughly 120 bouquets and gift baskets. The wall offers promotional information and holiday trivia, and customers are encouraged to leave comments and post photos. There is also a promotion tab, which did not have any active promotions when clicked, and a special offers tab with online discount coupon codes for registered fans.
Charlotte Russe
Charlotte Russe, with 51,194 fans as of September 10, 2009, features a catalog widget on its Facebook page that allows customers to browse products, save images and share them with friends, and set preferences for what types of products the widget will display. The widget integrates with Charlotte Russe’s Shop Together social shopping program that allows groups of online customers to pick out and discuss items together in real time. Customers can chat, view products, collect mutual favorites and share ideas.
Charlotte Russe’s Facebook page also features an online fall catalog, videos and photos, an events calendar, and a wall where customers can post comments and photos and ask questions.
Netflix
Netflix, with 48,814 fans as of September 10, 2009, uses the Facebook Connect application to allow customers to share their movie ratings posted on the Netflix site with their Facebook friends. The discussion board allows customer critiques and includes conversations on suggestions to improve Netflix and a recent trend of damaged discs. Netflix also uses its Facebook page to inform customers about promotions and special events and features photos posted by both the retailer and its customers, as well as movie trailer videos.
“With consumer confidence low and disposable income tight, the first weeks of November have been very disappointing, with online retail spending declining versus year ago,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It’s also likely that some budget-conscious consumers are planning to wait to buy until later in the season to take advantage of retailers’ even more aggressive discounting.”
Holiday Online Retail Spending Forecast
comScore forecasts that holiday online retail spending for the whole of the November-December period will be flat from last year’s season—significantly lower than last year’s 19% growth rate and below the retail e-commerce growth rate of 9% observed for year-to-date 2008.Assuming the stock market doesn’t deteriorate materially during the season and that there is no apocalyptic news of major financial institutions, manufacturers or retailers failing, we should see online spending growth inch back towards positive as we get deeper into the season,” said Fulgoni.
Holiday Online-Shopping Survey
Alongside its reporting of behaviorally monitored e-commerce spending, comScore is conducting weekly surveys of approximately 500 consumers to determine holiday-shopping attitudes and sentiment.
One-third (33%) of consumers surveyed Nov. 21-24 said they had not even begun their holiday shopping.Consumer also intend to cut back on holiday spending in several ways, most notably by buying fewer gifts (47% of respondents) and buying less expensive gifts (46% of respondents)
Respondents also said they planned to employ the internet to help cut costs by taking advantage of free shipping and/or no sales tax (39%). The retail industry is increasingly turning to social networking sites as a new means of connecting with customers. Facebook, which reports more than 200 million active users worldwide, is especially popular with retailers.
Although Facebook was founded in 2004 as a service for registered Harvard University students only, it has since expanded to become a completely open service and says its fastest-growing age category of users is 35 and up. When Retailer Daily reviewed the Facebook pages of Aeropostale, Papa John’s and Sears in April 2009, the primary retail application for Facebook was simple branding.
Earlier this year, most Facebook pages contained some unique coupons, promotional videos and customer-generates content, but were primarily extensions of branding performed on retailers’ existing websites. True e-commerce functionality was provided through links back to retailers’ transactional websites, and most promotional features were static photos and videos.
Judging by the Facebook pages of the three retailers Retailer Daily is reviewing for the third quarter of 2009: 1-800-Flowers.com, Charlotte Russe, and Netflix, this is starting to change. 1-800-Flowers.com in particular is raising the social networking bar by offering actual e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page, while Charlotte Russe and Netflix use Facebook applications to help customers collaboratively share ideas and product information. Highlights from these three retailers’ Facebook pages follow.
1-800-Flowers.com
1-800-Flowers.com, with 3,584 fans as of September 10, 2009, is a rare retailer which offers full e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page. A shop tab leads users directly to a Facebook storefront where they can browse, select and purchase items from a product assortment of roughly 120 bouquets and gift baskets. The wall offers promotional information and holiday trivia, and customers are encouraged to leave comments and post photos. There is also a promotion tab, which did not have any active promotions when clicked, and a special offers tab with online discount coupon codes for registered fans.
Charlotte Russe
Charlotte Russe, with 51,194 fans as of September 10, 2009, features a catalog widget on its Facebook page that allows customers to browse products, save images and share them with friends, and set preferences for what types of products the widget will display. The widget integrates with Charlotte Russe’s Shop Together social shopping program that allows groups of online customers to pick out and discuss items together in real time. Customers can chat, view products, collect mutual favorites and share ideas.
Charlotte Russe’s Facebook page also features an online fall catalog, videos and photos, an events calendar, and a wall where customers can post comments and photos and ask questions.
Netflix
Netflix, with 48,814 fans as of September 10, 2009, uses the Facebook Connect application to allow customers to share their movie ratings posted on the Netflix site with their Facebook friends. The discussion board allows customer critiques and includes conversations on suggestions to improve Netflix and a recent trend of damaged discs. Netflix also uses its Facebook page to inform customers about promotions and special events and features photos posted by both the retailer and its customers, as well as movie trailer videos.
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