Online retailers will have plenty to be cheery about during the holiday season, according to a new survey. The 2004 Shop.org/BizRate.com Online Holiday Mood Study found that 98 percent of merchants are anticipating online growth this holiday season. Also, 32 percent of consumers plan to do more of their holiday shopping online this year.
Consumers who shop online are more likely to start their holiday shopping earlier than consumers who shop at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. And despite a common misconception that retailers start their holiday promotions earlier every year, 72 percent plan to begin holiday marketing at the same time as last year. Over half of online retailers (53%) will wait until after Halloween to begin promoting the holiday season, though most online shoppers will have started their shopping nearly a month before. According to the survey, 53 percent of online shoppers plan to begin their holiday shopping by early October, when only 14 percent of merchants will have launched their online holiday marketing promotions.
"Online shoppers seem to be leading the charge to start the holiday season earlier every year," said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org. "Online retailers who wait until November to begin holiday promotions might miss out on sales opportunities."
This year, consumers will be relying on the Internet in a variety of ways. More than half of online shoppers plan to use the Internet more than last holiday season to comparison shop (89%), research gifts for others (86%), buy gifts for others (74%), and buy gifts for themselves (53%).
"The online sector is quickly becoming a one-stop shopping destination for consumers," said Chuck Davis, CEO of BizRate.com. "Even consumers who may ultimately buy in the store are using the Internet to compare prices or research products."
About the Survey
The Online Holiday Mood Study is the only holiday measurement tool that is based on data provided directly from online retailers in addition to consumer data. The Shop.org/BizRate.com 2004 Holiday Online Mood Study was designed to gauge consumer behavior and online retailers' success during the winter holiday season. The poll of 1,722 online buyers (defined as anyone who has made a purchase online in the last twelve months) and more than 100 online retailers, all members of Shop.org, was conducted September 22-23.
BizRate.com Founded in 1996, BizRate.com is one of the largest, fastest and most accurate shopping search engines on the Web. With an index of approximately 25 million product offers from more than 45,000 stores, BizRate.com uses ShopRankTM, a proprietary shopping search algorithm, to produce the industry's most relevant search results by weighing price, popularity and availability of products, against the reputations of merchants that sell them. At the heart of ShopRankTM are BizRate.com's signature merchant and product ratings, collected from more than one million online buyers each month, making them the most reliable ratings on the Web. Every week, the BizRate.com shopping search engine prepares millions of shoppers to make smarter, more confident purchases and sends them directly to the checkout page of thousands of online merchants.
Shop.org, the association for retailers online, is where the best retail minds come together to gain the insight, knowledge and intelligence to make smarter, more informed decisions in the evolving world of the Internet and Multi-Channel retailing. Founded in 1996, Shop.org became a division of the National Retail Federation in January 2001. The associationâ€(tm)s membership includes interactive executives from store-based retailers, catalog-based retailers, Web-based retailers, and retail solution providers.
