The Return of Mega Monday?

Last year “Mega” or “Cyber Monday" (December 08) gave UK online retailers a sales lift to the value of £320 million [1] despite an unforeseen shortfall in internet traffic. It is anticipated that the biggest Monday for eCommerce before Christmas this year will be today (November 30) and is forecast to deliver 1,750 online sales a minute [2].

If this year’s "Mega Monday" lives up to expectations then it gives more evidence of the re-growth of consumer confidence following the economic downturn. This comes when in the wider industry the view of Christmas retailing has been typically short on optimism with predictions of small or zero growth. In an interview with the Telegraph, Andrew Higginson Tesco’s second-in command considered that at best Christmas sales would be “flat”[3].

Previously, the dominant theme in many of the predicted best selling items for Christmas was one of affordability for consumers and lower margins for retailers. In October, the Toy Retailers Association’s annual list of the top twelve Christmas toys [4] didn’t feature any items above £50 and focused on relatively inexpensive toys such as Go Go Hamsters/ Zhu Zhu pets.

By the end of November, however, things seem slightly different. The demand and consequent price of the must have Go Go Hamsters has more than quadrupled. Meanwhile, new video game release Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 received a West End premier and smashed all previous sales records.

We have also witnessed trends in relevant search queries on google.co.uk that would seemingly underline a more optimistic view of Christmas 2009. Interest in Christmas gift and shopping related queries has been growing since September while terms typically associated with the slowdown have declined in popularity. For example terms like “Recession” have dropped over 20% from the same period in November 2008.

Searches for “Christmas gift ideas” have risen in popularity by some 26% this year while other generic terms like “gift ideas” have increased by 12%. Shoppers, it would seem, are as interested as ever - if not more so - in researching and finding inspiration for their Xmas purchases.

Online retailers looking to fully address the seasonal opportunity need to account for a more engaged if perhaps equally indecisive Christmas shopper. They also have to be able to differentiate in their strategy between those looking for inspiration when it comes to gift ideas for partners or family members and those who are eager to discover the availability or prices of specific items.

Tweaking ad texts to mention gifts by recipients or competitive price points are effective suggestions for advertisers. Also and as recommended by our colleagues in the US, optimising your website for indecisive shoppers so that they can easily search by recipient, price or interest are advised. Read more about their research and recommendations here.

[1] Retail Week 09 Dec 2008
[2] NMA 27 Nov 2009
[3] Telegraph 21 Sep 2009
[4] Toys Association 28 Oct 2009


Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

Online Shoppers Can’t Get No Satisfaction

More consumers are turning to the web to shop for and purchase products. As we head into the festive season online retail is expected to account for 20% of all Christmas sales this year [1]. Unfortunately many retail websites haven’t matched the increase in traffic with better site usability and speed. Recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting in the US found that a mere two seconds is the new threshold of an average online shopper’s patience with website loading times. While 40% of shoppers will wait no longer than three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site [2].

More surprising perhaps than just how elusive online customer engagement has become is the fact that many pure play retailers, those with their bedrock firmly entrenched in the world of eCommerce, are now seen as lagging behind their multichannel counterparts in delivering good online performance. The eRetail Benchmark study conducted by eDigital Research identified traditional retailers as “consistently outperforming their pure play and catalogue rivals online, using multichannel technology and customer service expertise to their advantage” [3].

As reported by Internet Retailing, traditionalist retailer John Lewis was the study's top performing website followed by Marks & Spencer and Next with New Look moving into the top ten sites on account of its “best in class” shopping basket function [3]. The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company Sitemorse study of October’s top 50 Retail websites also confirmed similar findings. They noted the lack of pure plays at the upper end of their rankings and gave special recognition to traditional retailer, HMV for their newly overhauled website [4].

The message to all online retailers must surely be that regularly changing, testing and evolving their site is imperative. However, the scale of these changes need not be too drastic, on paper at least. Econsultancy and Red Eye found that relatively straightforward practices such as aligning keywords, calls to action and landing pages plus using compelling and effective calls to action are associated with high levels of customer satisfaction and conversion [5]. Good web analytics can also play its part with segmenting customers, removing bottlenecks and blockages to conversion and identifying key performance indicators being other beneficial actions for online retailers to take [5].

With Christmas just round the corner and for some eCommerce marketers regarding their current online stores with some slight concern, only minor modifications would seem prudent or potentially necessary. Meanwhile those looking to address specific pain points such as the effects of a poor onsite search facility for example, might read about products such as the newly announced Google Commerce Search with some interest. More details were posted by our colleagues in the US here

[1] NMA November 13, 2009
[2] Internet Retailing September 22, 2009
[3] Internet Retailing November 06, 2009
[4] The Retail Bulletin November 02, 2009
[5] Internet Retailing October 09, 2009

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

Internet Retailing Interview with Peter Fitzgerald, Google UK's Retail Industry Leader

Internet Retailing recently posted a revealing interview with Peter Fitzgerald, Industry Leader at Google UK. View it here:



Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

A Tale of Two Octobers

October has often been a month of economic turmoil; it is the month when both the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 took place. Last year, it looked like the global economy was on the precipice of financial meltdown. It was during October that various governments were forced to take shares in numerous large financial institutions.

Refreshingly, 12 months on and October appears to have passed without major incident. The banks look like they will survive, the FTSE 100 is up around 30%, and GDP is expected to be positive in the next quarter.

After a very tough year for retailers, the story seems the same. According to the CBI optimism from UK retailers is the most positive it has been in 2 years. High Street sales have grown modestly in the year to October[1].

However online retail presents a much stronger picture, and is the channel driving growth for a lot of retailers. Argos have reported that 'Check & Reserve' orders have grown 50% and represent 18% of all orders; 42% of orders are now 'multi-channel' [3]. John Lewis reports website sales growing at 29% vs 5% for the overall business for the 12 weeks ended 24th October[4]. It seems there is no stopping UK consumers embracing the internet to browse and shop for products. At Google, UK searches for popular categories such as clothing and Home Entertainment are up 36% and 26% respectively Y/Y. The charts below show how four popular categories are trending as we head into the seasonal peak. In some cases search activity is already greater than peak levels of Christmas 2008.





All this should provide some optimism for retailers on the verge of the busy Christmas trading period. As we look to the festive season, it is seems that ~30% Y/Y growth is the benchmark to set.

Amazon's recently reported third quarter results. International sales (which include UK, DE, FR & JP) were up 33% on the same period last year. The company has forecast growth next quarter to be between 21-36% compared to 2008[2].

What targets have you set for your website this Christmas? And how can you capitalise on the growth opportunity presented by online (eCommerce) over the festive period? For those new to online advertising a Google Adwords account can be set up in minutes and will allow you to place a targeted message alongside search results. Go to www.google.co.uk/Adwords to learn more.

For those already well versed in paid search advertising, Google tools such as Insights for Search can show what new terms users are searching for, and help you target your marketing activity. While the Search Based Keyword Tool can help identify gaps in your keyword coverage. Get in touch with your Google representative for more help.

[1] “UK retailers’ optimism at two-year high” Norma Cohen, FT.com, October 27 2009
[2] Amazon Investor Relations
[3] “Half-year results for the 26 weeks ended 29 August 2009” Home Retail Group, October 21 2009
[4[ John Lewis Partnership


Posted by Jonathan Marsh, UK Retail Team