Ecommerce Holiday Marketing Infographic

Santa is up for ‘Tis the season – You?

The stockings are yet to be hung, jack-o'-lantern is coming near and so are the consumers ready to purchase online.
E-Commerce retailers have made their holiday calendars and getting ready for ‘Tis the season!

Commerce Monks dig deep into unveiling the E-Commerce and Holiday season secrets!

Santa gifts revenue
to the

Dot

Dot

Country

Year On Year Sales in Bn $

2011 2012 2013

US Holiday E-Commerce Sales

$46.60 $53.70 $61.80

UK Holiday E-Commerce Sales

$24.30 $28.50 $32.10

Australia Holiday E-Commerce Sales

$9.20 $11.60 $13.30

(Sources: emarketer, IBMR & Capgemini, IBM and Paypal Australia)

So, what are the best holidays when you can expect a boost in sales for 2013?

E-Commerce stores make 20-40% of their annual sales in November and December.

The graph below shows us the weekly sales breakdown in the holiday seasons of 2011 and 2012 in the US
(the last 9 weeks of the year as the holiday season) and also sales figures from certain holidays

2011

2012

$8,000
$7,000
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0

Week 1 (Nov. 4)
Week 2 (Nov. 11)
Week 3 (Nov. 18)
Week 4 (Nov. 25)
Week 5 (Dec. 2)
Week 6 (Dec. 9)
Week 7 (Dec. 16)
Week 8 (Dec. 23)
Week 9 (Dec. 30)

2012

22 Nov. Thanksgiving $633 M
23 Nov. Black Friday $1,042 M
24-25 Nov. Weekend $1,187 M
26 Nov. Cyber Monday $1,465 M

10 Dec. Green Monday $1,275 M
17 Dec. Free Shipping Day $1,013 M
25 Dec. Christmas Day $288 M

(Source: Comscore)

Cyber Monday is the busiest online shopping day in the US and UK, Click Frenzy is the biggest shopping day in Australia

(Sources: Comscore and IBM)

This holiday calendar shows the corresponding high selling days for 2013.

November

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Click
Frenzy
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

28
Thanks
Giving
29

29
Black
Friday
30

30
Weekend

December

1

1
Weekend
2

2
Cyber
Monday
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

9
Green
Monday
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

18 Free
Shipping
Day
19
20
21
22
23
24

24
Christmas
Eve
25
26

26
Boxing
Day
27
28
29
30
31

Which are the most valuable

marketing channels for

E-Commerce Merchants

Marketers rated the value of the following marketing channels on a
scale of 1-10 in Multi Channel Merchant's E-Commerce survey

Email

8.23%

8.46%
SEO

7.5%

7.83%
Paid Search

6.06%

6.31%
Online Display Ads

5.03%

5.08%
Marketing to Shopping Carts Abandoners

4.97%

4.72%
Affiliate Marketing

4.03%

4.43%
Social Media

6.06%

6.31%
Mobile

4.93%

4.2%
SMS

3.38%

2.80%
Sending Offline Traffic Online

4.81%

4.79%
Retargeting

5.1%

Did Not Ask
Personalization

5.77%

Did Not Ask

2013

2012

Which could be the most successful promotional tactics of 2013 Holiday Season?

In 2012 for US Marketers, following were the most successful promotional tactics

(Source: Prosper Insights and Analytics)

Dot

Cracking the Omni-Channel code!

To Deal with Omni-Channel retail, marketers need to create a “system of engagement” across channels

System of engagement:

Coordinates all decisions across all channels to create an engaging relationship with each customer and prospect.

Social
Search
Display ad
Web
Mobile
Email
ATM/kiosk
Phone
Branch
POS
Mail

(Source: IBM)

1

Online Display, Email and Print will be the top 3 promotional channels used by merchants. ( Source:Experian)
2

84% marketers worldwide consider consistent customer experience across all E-Commerce channels as very important. ( Source: Retail Systems Research)
3

80% consider inventory visibility across all E-Commerce channels to be very important. ( Source: Retail Systems Research)
4

Mobile purchases will account for 16% of sales, with a value of $41.68 billion in 2013 and that said, merchants will focus on Mobile commerce, In-store mobile and mobile point of sale systems. ( Source:Emarketer)
5

88% of marketers plan to integrate social tactics into shopping experience this holiday season! ( Source:Experian)
6

About 33% of the sampled E-Commerce site visits in Q2 came from search.
( Source:Monetate)

Key Takeaway

Mobile Commerce is rising and will continue to rise for 2013 holiday season.
Social Media is booming and with that merchants will plan for more contests and campaigns in 2013.
Superior Omni-Channel customer experience will be the key.
Holiday sales will outperform the overall annual sales growth.
Free Shipping, Coupons and Easy Checkout will lure the customers for the coming two months.
More stores will focus on speedy order fulfilment and alternative payment options.