The news just keeps getting uglier for online retailers. Today comScore released their e-commerce sales growth numbers for October, and they aren’t pretty. Online spending in October 2008 grew by only 1 percent over October 2007, which is the lowest monthly growth rate seen since comScore began tracking e-commerce in 2001. To put that in perspective, the growth rate in April 2008 was 15%, and the peak was 28% in August 2007. As would be expected, the effect of the economy on online retail sales was particularly apparent among the lowest income earners ($0 to $50K), who saw a 3% decrease in year-over-year online sales. There is good news, however; households with an income over $100K, who make up 35% of total e-commerce dollars spent, increased their year-over-year spending by 14%. This indicates that a marketing strategy geared towards the more affluent members of the population could be quite successful.
Another group of spenders is looking more important than ever this holiday season. They are female and shopping-savvy, and they are taking full advantage of the wealth of discounts and promotions in the marketplace today. In a recent eMarketer survey, 67% of female respondents noted that they were going to try to use more coupons and coupon codes than usual, and another 65% said they would spend more time looking on the Internet for deals. And when you target these shoppers with promotions, you won’t just be reaching them; their friends are likely to see the coupon as well. Nearly 80% of female internet users said they had shared a coupon with a friend during the past three months.
There are two other advantages to the female market: they begin their holiday shopping earlier (more than 70% begin prior to December 16), and even in the recession they are still susceptible to unplanned purchases (more than three-quarters said they were likely to make impulse buys this season).
Given this information, it is crucial that online retailers continue to generate creative, enticing promotional offers that are likely to appeal to female shoppers throughout the holiday season. Brush up on that messaging, and let’s try to salvage what could otherwise be a very long December.
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