More Ho Ho Holiday Shopping Facts to Help You Finish Out the Year

The clock is running out for holiday shoppers but RetailMeNot says that 55% of consumers are only half way done with their shopping . With that in mind, here are the results of a few surveys that could help you reel in those last minute customers.

Fast Free Delivery

We’ve heard this one before but it’s still a huge factor in online shopping, especially around the holidays. ShopRunner says:

77% of consumers would spend more online and less in stores if free 1-2 day shipping was offered.  Additionally, having more faster free shipping options would drive 65% of shoppers to procrastinate and put off making purchases longer than usual.

Make Returns Free and Easy

ShopRunner reports that 81% of online shoppers will not buy from websites that charge return shipping. Not only do customers drop off from sites that charge, a university study found that free return shipping increased customer loyalty and spending. The increase in spending was significant, too – between 158% and 457% over a four year period.

In addition 69% of online shoppers said that the return process was too complicated. What can you do to make returns easier? It might take some effort on your part but you’ll get it back in return sales from happy customers.

Standardized Check-out

ShopRunner also found that customers are craving simplicity in checkout. 67% said they’d spend more online and on mobile if they could use the same, secure, easy check-out procedure on every website.

Google tried this with Google check-out but it hasn’t caught on. Paypal is doing the best job of standardizing check-out but even they have a long way to go.

Social Media is Just Gingerbread

QuickSurvey respondents showed a distinct lack of interest in social media. Only 10% of consumers said they would shop through a retailer’s store on Facebook. 28% said that Facebook helped inspire them to buy a certain gift. Only 3% said the same thing about Pinterest – a surprising number since Pinterest is more about luxury and gift items than Facebook.

And here’s one I didn’t think of:  4% would buy gifts on Kickstarter or other crowd-funding site. Now that’s like giving two gifts in one. Nice.

Be a Problem Solver

21% of RetailMeNot shoppers said that their spouse was hard to buy for. Men in particular had trouble finding gifts for the woman in their life. And 52% of shoppers said they preferred to give a surprise gift versus something the other person asked for.

All of that means that last minute shoppers are open to suggestions. This is your chance to push those slow moving items. Offer them with low-priced, over-night shipping and you’ll be ringing up sales right to the very end.

And forget the gift wrapping. 53% of shoppers say it’s not worth paying extra. Most people simply include shipping and wrapping in their budget which means they spend less on actual gifts in order to make it all work out in the end.

Source : internetwebsitedesign[dot]biz