Merchants Should Be Preparing For The Holidays Now; Eight merchandising tips
Just as most consumers begin to enjoy summer, it’s time for savvy merchants to put the finishing touches on holiday sales plans. While it is difficult to estimate the volume of “gifting” purchases made online, there is no doubt about the customers’ penchant for buying gifts via this channel.
During the 2006 holiday season, the e-tailing group, in conjunction with StartSampling, a marketing services company, conducted the inaugural Mindset of the Multichannel Shopper Survey. The survey found that 54 percent of those who intended to do any holiday shopping online did so because it saves time and money, with the latter being at the forefront of shoppers’ minds. We don’t anticipate much will change during the coming year except the web channel’s share of wallet will continue to expand.
Merchants who understand a customer’s desire for saving time have embraced ways to showcase products in robust gift centers: they’ve integrated gift finders that allow shoppers to effectively search by price and other features and they’ve implemented tools that enable buyers to shop for multiple recipients during a single shopping experience.
To help you capitalize on this important (and hectic) time of year, we thought it would be prudent to share the e-tailing group’s “Gift-savvy Merchandising Top Eight Tips.”
