Online marketing is having a significant impact on traffic to retailers’ web sites as the Christmas shopping season heats up, says Coremetrics Inc., provider of hosted web analytics and marketing services. According to Coremetrics’ LIVEmark Index, which analyzes traffic across 175 retail web sites, the number of visits to retail sites driven by online marketing increased 33% from the week before Thanksgiving to the week after.
The increase in traffic came with an increase in conversion rates, not surprising as consumers have high intentions to buy at this time of year, but a decrease in average ticket, again not surprising as more buyers usually means the average goes down.
"When people shop for gifts during the holidays their purchasing behavior is different than it is during the rest of the year," said Joe Davis, president and CEO of Coremetrics. "This year merchants who have effectively leveraged online marketing to grab consumer attention have seen a big payoff in terms of site traffic and revenues."
LIVEmark data show that marketing tactics such as e-mail, paid search, affiliate marketing, banner ads, and shopping comparison site placements, drove 33% of traffic to retailers during the first week in December, up from 13% for the week before Thanksgiving. The gains in marketing-driven traffic outpaced overall increases in site traffic resulting from holiday shopping of 9% and 24% respectively for the two weeks.
In the week following Thanksgiving, conversion rates rose more than 24% over the week prior to Thanksgiving. Average order size fell by 3.5% during the same time. “On the balance, however, retailers came out ahead,” Coremetrics reports. “The increased traffic and conversion rates resulted in an overall rise in revenues of 47% for the week following Thanksgiving when compared to the week prior to the holiday.”
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