Results from the 2008 eHoliday Survey, conducted by Shop.org and Shopzilla, have been released. The results offer an intriguing look into the state of online retail as we enter the heart of the Holiday season. Seeking Alpha has all of the results of the survey, which is a very good read for anyone involved in the industry right now. The survey paints a picture of an industry that may have worry about the economic downturn and knows it is not immune from pain.
Among the items that interested me: it appears that retailers will continue to offer free shipping promotions, but either increase the requirements to trigger the promotion or cut promotions in other areas. Free shipping is still a big deal.
When it comes to site usability and features:
Many retailers have rolled out new website features to improve the customer experience. Features like improved site search, which 42.9% of retailers added or improved since last holiday season, will help customers navigate sites more easily.
Other features, like product video (42.6%) and customer reviews (32.7%) can give shoppers more information to make buying decisions.
For price-focused shoppers, retailers have added and enhanced both clearance-sale pages (27.1%) and featured-sale pages (31.3%).
In addition, retailers continue to experiment with social networking: Nearly one-fourth (25.0%) of online retailers added a Facebook page this year.
This season will see a lot of experimenting with social media and non-traditional product detail and category pages. I’m really eager to see what retailers roll out in 2009 if these limited engagement tests pay off during the holiday season.