Coldwater Creek drives up last-minute holiday sales with fast-ship offer
E-commerce sales have been increasing as a percent of overall sales at multi-channel retailer Coldwater Creek Inc., and to keep the momentum going through the end of the holiday shopping season, it offered a special shipping deal: order by midnight Dec. 22, pay for general ground shipping, and get guaranteed delivery before Christmas. “It works great and fuels last-minute shopping,” a spokesman tells InternetRetailer.com.
Coldwater Creek charges general ground shipping fees ranging from $4.95 for purchase amounts up to $25, to $16.95 for purchase amounts of more than $200. For second-day air shipment, it charges an extra $7.95 ($9.95 for Alaska and Hawaii). Coldwater Creek absorbs the additional cost of expediting shipping as needed to meet its pre-Christmas deadline, the spokesman says.
Although the company would not comment on actual sales figures for the entire holiday shopping season this year until its next quarterly disclosure in March, it said that e-commerce net sales for the quarter ended Nov. 30 reached $50 million, up 10.9% over the same period last year. It said Q3 e-commerce net sales were 41.4% of direct sales (including web, catalog and outlet stores), up from 36.5% a year ago, and 32.5% of total net sales, including 43 retail stores, up from 31.8% a year ago, when it operated 37 retail stores.
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