NFLShop.com shows its softer side this holiday season

This holiday season, NFLShop.com is targeting a category of consumer typically outside its target market-women. Wives and mothers to be exact.

The online retailer, No. 130 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, this year is extending its marketing efforts beyond its typical base of male NFL fans to reach moms and spouses seeking holiday gifts for their husbands and sons, says Bob O’Keefe, senior director of direct marketing.

The retailer is using paid search terms that may attract a female gift giver, such as ‘Holiday Gifts for Men,’ O’Keefe says. It’s also launched a commercial that will begin this month and air through December depicting a mom and wife as the hero who “Got it right” this Christmas with the perfect presents for the football fans in her family.

In addition to paid search and TV spots, NFLShop.com also is using the large amount of data it captures about consumers from its Bank of America NFL credit and debit cards, transaction history and NFL Sunday ticket television subscription program to target women and households with children in e-mail messages.

“We are using anything and everything we can to segment and understand who we are talking to,” O’Keefe says. “If they are Jet fans, we will appeal to that. If we are sending something to a mom and we know there are kids involved we will play to that.”

NFL shop’s 2007 revenue totaled $90 million and about half of the merchant’s sales are during the holiday season, O’Keefe says. To make the most of the peak sales period, the retailer also plans to offer free shipping and a gift with purchase promotion. “First and foremost, it’s about how we merchandise the site, make promotions visible and use those to drive conversions,” O’Keefe says. Conversion rates increase by as much as 50% during the holidays, he adds.

Additionally, NFLShop.com this month introduced a gift finder tool; the retailer launched a wish list feature last year.

Another point of focus during December will be inventory, O’Keefe says. “We will have a major commitment this year on having products on the shelves and in stock,” he says. “And that can be tricky with 32 different teams.”

NFLShop.com also is increasing the pages in its holiday catalog-which it mails out to 3.8 million households-from 48 to 68. O’Keefe says the catalog is one of the main ways the merchant drives traffic to its retail site.