Following the recent holiday rush, I’m counting on retailers to have taken the month of January to fine tune or even overhaul entirely their smartphone and tablet offerings and marketing strategies for this occasion. Luxury brands such as Swarovski and David Yurman are pulling out all the stops to entice us to indulge our loved ones next week. In the process, these brands are raising the bar for the smartphone and tablet experiences that all retailers provide their customers.

Among online shoppers who plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, almost half (46%) own a smartphone, and almost one in five (17%) own a tablet device. Not surprisingly, quite a few of these online shoppers will be using these devices as part of their shopping process:

• One quarter of smartphone owners expect to research products and compare products on their phone, and about one in ten figure they’ll purchase products and redeem coupons. Of course, the smartphone shines as the go-to reference for anyone, well, on the go, so one in five will be looking up retailer information such as location, store hours, and the like. Lacoste has found that close to half of their store locator visits originate with mobile devices, which, they add, is aided by integrating social media on every mobile page.
• One-third of tablet device owners will research products and compare prices, and one in five anticipates actually purchasing their gifts on the device, as well as looking up information about the retailer.

If you think your mobile strategies - one for mobile and another for tablet devices, of course - could use some revamping, start planning now for upcoming retail holidays to test various elements and tactics. Easter this year is April 8 – only 8 weeks away – with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and all-important Back to School in rapid succession thereafter. Agile retailers – whether they’re your direct competitors or not – are only continuing to invest for yet better customer experiences. Survey other retail mobile sites and apps and resolve to learn, test and fine tune. Analyze what each device is really good for – and thus what your goals are for each. While some goals may overlap, we were surprised last year when retailers we surveyed told us that, at the time, their objectives for these two very different devices were largely the same.

For some terrific ideas on optimizing your tablet format, you can learn some useful tips from Resource Interactive’s tablet design expert Stephen Burke, who recently spoke at the Shop.org First Look Track. His observations are critical to sharpen the tablet experience for your customers. Enjoy the mobile ride this year!

Our industry was reminded last year that site launches and re-launches in 2011 are no less immune to problems than in early e-commerce days ten, even fifteen, years ago. Anyone who has replatformed empathizes entirely with the huge amount of work involved before – and also after – relaunch. What can we learn as a community from these recent experiences?

Tuning a platform, and even more importantly the integrations with your other systems, is a challenge. Testing methodologies and technology have advanced – there is a lot of rigor there – yet we continue to see new challenges. We need to realize that the traffic is massive, relative to where we were just a few years ago. Customers can now react immediately to an email, a TV ad, or a viral campaign on Facebook on their phone, their tablet, etc. Target’s problems with their Missoni event caught them off guard because the test cases did not anticipate the very high number of items customers put in the cart, together with high conversion rates, and that on top of the spike in traffic from a very successful marketing campaign. By the way, their stores were also ill-prepared, which exacerbated the website’s problems as those customers who lined up at the stores hopped on their smartphones. Hindsight may be 20/20, but it is easy to see how smart people could have missed it. Bottom line – you need to limit the variables in a replatforming project launch, including testing and tuning with modest traffic before peak season. The timing of a launch is important here, but there will be unexpected problems. Plan on them happening and prepare your organization and management for it.

Of course, the $6 billion Cyber Week last December also proved trying for a number of retailers. Are site outages simply a function of too many good deals attracting too many customers – or is there something more fundamental going on?

I think it is difficult to generalize here, but I do think we are at the point where customers are interacting with companies in different ways and we have to adjust how the systems that support web, mobile, and digital interactions and transactions are built. Commerce technology must be hosted in an elastic and scalable environment. How we engineer and test these systems has to evolve, and how we plan and execute our marketing campaigns, has to get much smarter. Blasting your email file, texting all your SMS opt-ins, posting on Twitter, and using a press release to announce some amazing deal may bring down your site. What if Amazon did that with Lady Gaga’s latest album? Well, they did, and their site could not handle it. You need to test, measure, and adjust something like that to carefully monitor the sites ability to handle the traffic. That level of coordination is critical between marketing and the teams who are ensuring the technology is performing as designed.

So, if it isn’t just a matter of load testing, which are some of potential “weak links” that retailers need to find and tune to stabilize their sites?

It is certainly not a matter of just load testing. Everyone has their forecasts and have an idea of what they need to support. Sites get load tested at three to five times the peak forecasted traffic and order volumes. But like the Target Missoni example, it is difficult to account for all the variables in an annual test. Certainly smart business analysts and engineers can anticipate most of the test cases. But if it were just a matter of that, sites would not go down. Everyone needs to own site up-time and performance. Marketers, merchants, web developers, engineers all need to have an eye to what can happen based on their decisions and communicate and work with their hosting support and quality assurance folks.

What’s the best way to diagnose those weak spots in one’s e-commerce system?

Monitoring tools both within the data center and out on the edge are critical to understanding the performance of the commerce systems and integrations. API monitoring tools also have improved and will become increasingly more important. Companies should budget for the analysts and developers to actively debug and tune the system and environment for 2 months after a launch, and schedule regular monitoring times thereafter. Do not make the mistake of doing the big load test with test traffic and orders, launching your site and mobile applications, and then assume everything should be good. The integrations, processes, configurations, and customizations make for a lot of complexity which may not appear immediately or be tested with your test cases.

Overall, what’s your site platform advice to retailers for 2012? What must retailers do – and, perhaps, what should they leave alone – if anything?

From a stability and performance standpoint, retailers need to budget for site performance and stability optimization. Budget for disaster recovery services, infrastructure, implementation, and testing. And do not be so aggressive on project launches so close to your critical sales and marketing events. I have advised clients to wait to launch their new site until after the holidays and January clearance sales. This is hard to do when you want to drive the new car instead, but if you have not driven that car and know how well it can perform, you may be better off driving the old one instead until you have a better opportunity to test and tune the new one. Your metrics may actually be better since you are not throwing your customers a curve ball with a redesign during your biggest and most important sales period.

Since it is likely that every retailer at some point may encounter site downtime – for whatever reason – what’s your advice for managing that time period while the site is down? 

If you run the business, educate yourself on the issues, the what-ifs, and be prepared to be the commander-in-chief if something goes wrong. Have a plan for how you will communicate with your vendors, your internal stakeholders, and of course most importantly your customers. Your customer contact center may be the first to know there may be an issue, or maybe today it is your social media marketer who is monitoring Twitter. Heaven forbid it is the CEO who calls up and says “it looks like the site is down.” That really happened to me once – don’t let it happen to you. Be prepared with a plan for how you discover, validate, communicate, delegate, and resolve these problems.

Your colleague, Carrie Johnson, last year noted in her “Benchmark Your eBusiness Strategy and Results” report five key metrics with which e-businesses should guide and track their progress. Two of those – annual e-business budget, and number of staff dedicated to the online division – likely have a big impact on the operations and IT part of a retail business. Are you finding that retailers are devoting a large enough budget and enough dedicated people to developing, maintaining, testing and fine-tuning e-commerce systems to avoid problems?

E-commerce budgets are increasing, though e-business leaders feel they still fight the perception that the Web should be a lower-cost and lower-overhead operation. The real dollars are becoming meaningful and team size has grown, but budgets are still often below where they need to be to invest in the core technology capabilities and build their teams to support a growing multichannel business. And even if they have the money they find it hard to hire the talent, especially in technology and analytics roles. To mitigate these challenges and increase business agility, we see more e-business leaders relying on outside services teams and cloud-based technology solutions to augment their teams and fill in the gaps in capabilities they need to compete.

For perspective, Eisenberg gave the audience a “super duper condensed history of marketing, commerce and connectivity”, first juxtaposing images of a Roman coin with a credit card and payment by phone (my, how far we’ve come). The logistics and communications evolution has been rapidly evolving, too, of course – think of the path from the Gutenberg press to catalog retail to Amazon’s first home page, through online ads and social media, for example.

With this condensed history in mind, Eisenberg examined how marketing has been redefined. With increasingly demanding consumers, marketing is now much more about pull than old-style marketing push. Some companies such as Amazon and Zappos are foregoing classic marketing altogether, instead making an optimal customer experience their marketing strategy and plan instead (talk about culture convergence).

So, if this means “the end of business as usual”, what’s ahead for retailers? Eisenberg cited a number of evolutions that retailers need to keep an eye on, but the overarching theme is “Interactive Communications + Data = Increase in Relevance”. Eisenberg detailed what the future shopping experience might look like:

• Smartphones will synch up with a set top box in your house. The point here is expressly about utility – it is not about having hundreds of channels to choose from. Rather, the set top box knows what we like, as well as what we actually use and need.
• Webcams that give consumers “touch and shop” functionality, especially as webcams themselves become more sophisticated.
• “How will you MS Kinect?” Eisenberg asked the audience, then demonstrated the “connect and share” scenario of two friends simultaneously in front of their screens at home, trying on and discussing various dresses for an upcoming evening out.
• Paper ads going interactive. Eisenberg demonstrated how “all media is digitizing” with a video of an I-Ad in magazines, whereby the reader places his smart phone on top of a specific spot on the magazine ad (in this case for insurance company Axa), at which point part of the ad comes to life via a rather entertaining video. (“Think [also] about kids who try to use touch screen motion on a paper magazine,” Eisenberg added, underscoring the idea that future consumers will likely ignore entire a static ad, altogether.)
• Mobile. Already impacting the online retail world, Eisenberg emphasized that mobile is all about relevance to the individual user. “It doesn’t matter if mobile isn’t driving revenue directly,” he noted, adding “Up to 50% of all purchases in a store are influenced by a mobile phone. [And] 65% of mobile consumers say they want to see more personalized ads.” As for those in-store searches consumers conduct, Eisenberg asked retailers if they’re leveraging the search data that people are using when they’re in one’s store? Think of the nuggets and insights waiting to be discovered so that you can learn and adapt store offerings and information to meet customer needs that they’re voicing via search. “The truth is inevitable,” he stated emphatically, “You can’t block information or access in-store without people just leaving your store and going elsewhere.”

So what should retailers do next? Eisenberg lamented that, “the future is almost here” – and yet so many companies are in “wait and see” mode, wondering whether they should test or not, should they start a mobile strategy or not, dive into analytics or not?  Instead, take a hint from Google, which is already operating in “future state” mode: “We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: we know where you are, we know what you like.” (Eric Schmidt’s IFA Keynote, September 2010)

Per Eisenberg, here’s what retailers need to be doing right now:

• Think cross-channel. Consumers don’t care about channels, so forget channel vs. channel. For example, Best Buy includes customer ratings on price tags in stores. Ratings and reviews are popping up in store displays and on packaging everywhere.
• Start testing and adapting. Two examples that Eisenberg cited to inspire the audience to think “future state” now included CScout in Japan and Tesco in South Korea.  Example 1:  Within the CScout in Japan, the consumer picks up a hangar with a specific pair of jeans, which starts a video relevant to that particular product (so, a customized in-store experience relevant to you and the product in which you’re interested).  Example 2:  On the theme of “Will you take risks?”, Tesco (renamed “Home Plus” locally) in South Korea decided to let the store come to the people, rather than opening more physical locations. How so? The company developed virtual stores in everyday life, like in subway stations, by using QR code technology on billboards designed to look like a grocery shelf stocked with many household staples. People waiting for the subway could shop the billboard with their smartphone, pay for their purchase, then have the groceries delivered to their home. Online sales increased 130%, and the number of registered users grew significantly also.

Are you motivated by these fascinating examples of the future shopper? If so, what will you be testing and trying next?

Watch the video below for Vicki’s full remarks including her advice to digital retailers at all level for preparing for the future of the industry.

Retailers reported generally favorable key performance indicators (KPIs) for the November and December period, compared to the January to October 2011 period leading up. While it’s not entirely surprising that nine out of 10 retailers surveyed saw increased average daily site traffic, site conversion increased significantly for almost half and increased somewhat for almost another third. Three-quarters also reported increases in email conversion, and almost half saw increases in average order value. Shopping cart abandonment rates actually decreased for almost half (are shopping cart remarketing strategies perhaps starting to hit their stride?).

Despite largely positive indicators for the just-concluded holiday season, retailers aren’t sitting on any laurels, and many have mapped out a busy year of investments and improvements to make the best of 2012. What did retailers learn that they will do differently for the Holiday 2012 season – and what are they investing in this year to improve those capabilities?

• Planning & Assortment. Improved forecasting, better inventory allocation for the Web channel, and general inventory management top the list of things that some retailers plan to do differently for Holiday 2012. To that end, many expect to invest in better inventory management in the coming months.
• Infrastructure & Operations. Retailers shared that site performance continues to be an area that needs attention, so this year they plan to invest in additional server capacity, site stability measures, and additional infrastructure improvements.
• Marketing & Promotions. Retailers this year are investing in, among other areas, all things search – both site search and SEO / SEM.
• Shipping & Fulfillment. “Fulfillment improvements,” “operational capacity” and “finding a way to extend the shipping cut off to Canada – lots of missed opportunity” were some of the comments retailers shared about what they will do differently for Holiday 2012. Retailers surveyed noted that logistics and operations will see investment this year, along with investments in drop ship management processes and related measures by which to extend shipping deadlines overall.
• Mobile. Not surprisingly, smart phone and tablet device optimization will likely see much work this year. (For tablet device design tips, please see also “Proof that tablets are here to stay”.)
• Customer Experience. Several retailers feel that the customer experience is something they particularly want to improve in time for Holiday 2012, from “end to end customer experience” to the overall multichannel shopping experience. Bravo to retailers who plan to focus on this area, particularly as shopping channels increasingly converge.

Please see the Shop.org site for full results of the 2011 eHoliday Study Post-Holiday retailer and consumer results.

Given the burgeoning tablet device user base, companies are clamoring to give these customers a great tablet experience: Burke noted that Resource Interactive delivered 65 tablet device-related projects just in the last year, serving CPG and retail clients such as Kohl’s, Sherwin-Williams, and Limited Brands. Burke cited research showing that:

• 7% of total online sales on Christmas Day 2011 came from Apple iPads specifically, according to IBM Coremetrics. iPads also drove 6% of all mobile online traffic the very next day (December 26, 2011). Their purchase conversion rate? A whopping 4.6% – “almost double the average mobile conversion rate of 2.8%.”
• Looking ahead, 20% of US consumers say they intend to buy a tablet device in the next six months. For men and adults aged 31 to 40 years old, that’s more like 23% and 24%, respectively. Even among US consumers aged 51 to 60, that’s 21% (just try prying the iPad out of the hands of Burke’s 63-year-old relative who never used her smartphone for anything but phone calls).

What’s interesting about the tablet device, Burke also noted, is that – with the exception of older users – the tablet device is not a replacement for other devices such as the computer at home. Also, Burke pointed to research showing that a high percentage of people who read e-books prefer to use a tablet device for that purpose, prompting Burke to somewhat tongue in cheek characterize e-books as “the gateway drug to tablet dependence.”

“Couch commerce” is really here.  According to Equation Research for Zmags, 70% of tablet usage is at home – specifically, either on the couch or in bed. Consumers use the smart phone and computer to get specific tasks done quickly, whereas tablet device users are “couch browsing” (attributable to Fred Cavazza of Forbes). Ultimately, the tablet is a “leisure device” – albeit one that is starting to drive real commerce.

4 Primary Tablet Device Design Principles.
“Smartphone design is more like fitting a size 12 foot into a size 10 shoe,” Burke joked. By contrast, tablet design is about using the depth and breadth of what a tablet offers – so much so that, “the conversation between agency and client is different.” Overall, Burke isn’t convinced that there’s a vast difference between a good tablet device design and good Web site design – but there are some key tablet design principles to observe:

• Make it engaging. Realize it must be a fun, engaging, immersive experience. “It’s like touching a stained glass window and watching it come to life,” Burke explained. In general, tablet consumers will engage repeatedly before making their considered purchase. Overall, you’ll want to use less text on a tablet, and instead use more imagery and short video.
• Make it share-able. The tablet device itself is often shared within a family. Tapping social media, the tablet also “makes it easy to share ideas, thoughts, and even products” with others.
• Make it shoppable. “The tablet is with people for an extended period of time in a low pressure way.” In traditional web design, “you limit the number of available windows and doors” in order to get people to the cart and to check out quickly. As a highly visual medium, retailers can offer lots of content to “engage and woo” the customer while still (gently) leading him or her to the actual purchase.
• Make it extendable. “The tablet provides a vehicle for brand stories and product immersion.” Retailers should think about digitizing and then making available on the tablet all kinds of analog content that they already own, such as assets such as circulars, a video highlighting a designer that the retailer is launching – the possibilities go on.

As one example of tablet design, Burke pointed to the Sherwin-Williams “ColorSnap” product and how that evolved from the initial smartphone (iPhone) app to the iPad app that features large, rich imagery that allows users to explore and interact.

Burke suggested that retailers also look into the concept of “Responsive Design”, by which the company uses a universal codebase and set of logic to automatically adapt the content to recognize the device and operating system that the customer is using (for example, the system would perhaps remove two or three items from a tablet design in order to render a good smart phone display).

So, let’s start with the age-old e-commerce question: in a multichannel organization, whom should the e-commerce team report into? The panel agreed: directly to the CEO. The CEO provides the cross-silo solution that cuts across all the divisions within the organization. If the e-commerce team is part of another group – marketing, merchandising, licensing, retail, or the like – it will inevitably be overly oriented toward the agenda of the silo into which it reports. What about the idea of having e-commerce report into the retail (stores) division? No, the panel said: retail and e-commerce need to be on par with one another organizationally. Or the idea of having different parts of the e-commerce team report into functional areas? The panel was clear: don’t break up the e-commerce organization – keep it whole, and, oh yes, have it report to the CEO.

Jared Blank, Vice President, E-Commerce at Tommy Hilfiger

As it turns out, this is how Bob Myers has set up his team at Sheplers. Taking it yet a step further, Bob has also implemented a single P&L within Sheplers, thereby allowing everyone within the company to unify around the consumer, versus individual silos. Sheplers has taken specific measures to make this a reality. For example, stores get credit for online sales that originate in their region or zip code, and e-commerce is tasked with driving sales in stores. As Kevin noted, “It’s about [shared] incentives.”  Furthermore, every employee hired – no matter what their job – has to have digital experience, thereby spreading shared digital sensibility through the organization.

The panelists all emphasized, however, that the most important tenets of classic retail remain: the traditional adage of “retail is detail” is as true as ever, but now it’s a matter of organizing around the customer (or, perhaps, “retail is detail plus digital”). E-commerce in 2012 simply isn’t like the online retail of 10 or 15 years ago – this is true retail, with “real retailers” running the business who understand the importance of factors such as inventory turn. “You have to be voracious about being in stock,” Bob noted as one example – retailers can’t just rely on the idea that the website is the infinite warehouse and that customers will be satisfied if you offer to order their size / color combination for them online, especially now that anyone with a smartphone in hand can do that on their own. (In the out-of-stock situation, Bob advised simply saying to the customer, “Let me get that item for you” – like we used to decades ago! – and then tracking that item down from other stores or even a competitor, simply to deliver on one’s promise to that customer.)

So, how about that other age-old e-commerce question: where does the retail IT team fit into the organization? Retail IT is generally used to build employee-facing tools – tools for employees to learn and use, maybe with training and manuals and on-site help. Consumer software and applications, of course, are very different and thus require a very different approach to development, implementation, and ongoing evolution. The panel agreed that it’s likely prudent to work initially with a third party development team to develop e-commerce solutions, as they know how to design and build for the consumer. As Sally noted, however, no one wants to use external resources indefinitely, so the ideal situation is to bring in and enable the internal IT team over time, gradually transitioning to make IT a true e-commerce partner.

How about e-commerce leadership? Gone are the days of “bright young things” coming in as generalists to run an e-commerce business, the panel agreed. Now, retailers need e-commerce specialists with deep expertise and experience to lead the e-commerce team. Jared described that he spends a lot of time with his merchandising and marketing teams (among others) “getting into the weeds” to understand in great detail what’s going on, how the team is doing, whether the right skill sets are in place. Sally added that understanding whether the right people are in place takes attention and time. E-commerce leaders need to invest in their team by giving them opportunities to develop their understanding of the market and to deepen their skills through venues such as Shop.org events (her words, not mine!). Also, some CEOs may not understand some of the specialized skills needed for e-commerce that are different from more traditional retail roles – for example, a usability expert, whose skills can increase site conversion and otherwise improve the customer experience.

With the e-commerce market developing so rapidly, how do organizations manage budgets? Some things in a budget, panelists noted, are must-haves like “air conditioning – you can’t not have that.” On other things, Bob explained that he listens carefully to his direct reports, and that if they all feel that something on the table needs to be included in the budget, he takes that input very seriously. What about the “shiny new keys” – emerging technologies that may not yet have proven track records? For those, Bob noted, “You place your bets.”

As Kevin pointed out, “Defending the status quo kills companies.” But if your organization isn’t yet quite as future-state as Sheplers, Sally summed up a few key steps towards the retail organization of the future: do ensure the e-commerce team reports into the CEO; focus on integrating *processes* first (i.e. integrate the organization further only once the processes are in place); and ensure that you have the right people for the job.

Amy Africa, CEO of Eight by Eight talks about the human brain and shopping.

So back to that unusual opening question. Amy used that – and a series of follow up “what if” scenarios – to get the audience to think about how we make decisions. Turns out it has a lot to do with our “reptilian brain” (I hadn’t heard of it, either). Forget the more common “right brain / left brain” categorization – Amy explained that we in fact have three brains: the neocortex (rational data processing), the mid-brain (emotions and gut feeling processing), and, finally, our reptilian brain. The latter is the arbiter or tie breaker between the first two and triggers decisions, as its primary concern is one’s survival, and, as Amy described it, “deciding what’s safe and what isn’t”.

And this has what to do with retailing? Quite a bit. Amy next outlined a raft of 21 factors about human beings and how those impact your customer’s decision to whether or not to visit your site, stay or flee, and – hopefully – actually buy. Lots of food for thought – think of it as a reality / sanity check for you and your business. Herewith some of Amy’s points:

• We are self-centered. Translation for your site: does your site really speak to your customers? Does it resonate with them, do they identify with what the site displays, talks about, exudes? Does your site speak the same “language” as they do?
• We process best in “black and white” – that is, contrasts. In fact, Amy noted, contrast is “efficient” for our brains; we’re programmed to notice differences and changes in our environment (again, a survival technique). Translation for retail sites – “what are your pattern interrupters for your customers on your site?” Amy pointed out that most people vow they can’t stand pop up ads – but, they do make people take notice. The home page carousel (rotating images or content) is also effective, engaging the user to linger a little longer and see what comes next to make sure they haven’t missed something.
• We are visual. As Amy noted, “You only think you think. You really just see.” Don’t “over SEO” your site, Amy further exhorted, forgetting that the user coming to your site from Google “doesn’t see words as much as he sees pictures.”
• We look for patterns. Translation for retail sites: customers like to see patterns, as they feel safe and familiar. In Amy’s experience, navigation accounts for 40% to 60% of the success of a site (that’s more like 80% for a mobile site). Why? “Because 80% of [the customer’s] attention goes to the first screen; the top and left hand are patterns and [therefore feel] safe.” Among patterns, human beings particularly look for faces, as they are reassuring. Amy suggested that by adding a friendly-looking picture of a customer service rep on your product and check out pages, you will increase your chances of improving conversions (sounds like a great A/B testing candidate!).
• We like things that we can touch. Translation for retail sites: are you using words on your site that are meaningless to your customer? If they don’t understand and cannot visualize easily terms like “revolutionary product” or “flexible approach” that you use on your site, they won’t warm to the product or service (or your company).
• We like beginnings and ends. Translation: are you using deadlines and creating a sense of urgency? Use short deadlines – they help customers focus. Amy pointed out that two years ago the average life span of an email was 48 hours – now it’s 9 hours at best, and likely really more like 4 hours.
• We respond to emotion. For a retail site, this is all about the story you tell (versus simply selling a product) – again, not just in words, but in your imagery and the overall look and feel of your site. What’s the first impression the customer gets? What are his or her takeaways from interacting with your site?
• We create false memories. “What do you remember? Our memories are terrible,” Amy noted. “So, how do you compensate for your user’s terrible memory?” For retailers, it’s about putting some action directive (or, a reminder to the customer to take the action you want them to take) on each and every page to compensate.
• We have inattentional blindness. As Amy notes, “We see what we want to see – and we don’t see what matters, often. Are your action directives clear and on every single page? What’s important to you and does the user know it?”
• We like what’s first. Customers who do a search will look at just the first two results presented – at best. For retailers, that means making sure your bestsellers are among the top two results.
• We respond to status. And, Amy posited, “Status and reputation are more important than money.” This is a key underpinning to social media – how many likes or connections, one’s rank as a contributor to customer reviews, and so forth.
• We respond to scarcity. As we all know, “If it’s rare, we want it,” Amy notes. For retailers, this means thinking about scarcity and how it affects your cart and your check out – are you conveying urgency and scarcity so the customer has incentive to finish the check out process?

Zia Wigder, Pricnipal Analyst and Research Director at Forrester Research moderates the discussion.

While I don’t want to overwhelm with data, to understand why there is so much interest in two markets in particular – China and Brazil – a few numbers provide perspective:

• In Asia, 41% of all online users live in China. Similarly, in Latin America, 41% of all online users live in Brazil. According to CNN Money, China and Brazil rank as the world’s two largest emerging economies in terms of GDP: China at $7 trillion (second only to the U.S., at $15.1 trillion), and Brazil at $2.5 trillion (that’s on par with the U.K.).
• Forrester expects the Chinese online retail market to grow from $94.6 billion this year to $159.4 billion in 2015 (this includes both the business to consumer and the consumer to consumer markets). While smaller than China, the Brazilian online retail market is the largest by far in Latin America, and will grow from $11.9 billion this year to $22 billion by 2016.
• In both countries, online consumers across all age groups are shopping online, though on average tend to skew younger than in the U.S. Most online buyers live in major metropolitan areas. Mobile penetration is very high in both markets – though shopping via mobile phone is not yet common practice. Non-local retailers entering China and Brazil will face markets dominated by local players – global retailers have yet to become a major contender in either. Furthermore, consumers are accustomed to cheap or free shipping (so much for that as a differentiator!). And while multichannel shopping is not really in place yet, Zia’s take is that there is much growth ahead on that front.

So – sounds like lots of potential for retailers exploring e-commerce opportunities outside their home markets? Panelists Angela Kapp of Shenzen, China-based Hui She Shang (The Luxury Club) and Gastao Mattos of Braspag in Brazil say yes – but it’s important first to understand the local market, customer preferences, culture, payment systems, logistics, and regulatory issues in order to succeed long term. While I cannot do justice in a single blog post to the wealth of information that the panelists provided today, herewith are a few highlights:

How do Chinese and Brazilian consumers shop online? Gastao noted that Brazilian shoppers are driven by promotions, and that free shipping is common practice. Brazilian online retail for now tends to be dominated by categories such as consumer electronics and computer-related goods. Brazilian consumers mostly use credit cards to buy online, and installment payment plans are a “promotion driver, but with a high negative impact on margin,” per Gastao. Social media is very popular in Brazil, but so far has had a low direct impact on online sales.

Angela emphasized that in China, price comes first and foremost, and competition on price is “fierce”. Chinese consumers buy a wide variety of products across categories: fully 25% of online sales in China are for apparel and footwear, including children’s apparel. In terms of customer service, consumers mostly use online chat, with only 20% of consumers using email (or “EDM – electronic data mail”, as it’s referred to in China). Union Pay estimates credit card usage in China at just 15%, so third party payment systems dominate the market: Alipay leads with over 200 million accounts. Social media is very popular (even without Facebook!) but tends to be more content sharing sites such as market leader Sina Weibo, as well as Qzone and Tencent.

How about the competitive marketplace? As noted earlier, local players dominate both markets, and even for global players such as Amazon (newly entered in Brazil), competition will be high. With prices for goods in mainland China 30 to 50 percent higher than in other markets (even Hong Kong), Angela sees international brands succeeding partly via their expanding network of stores around China, allowing them to develop a multichannel experience.

What about fulfillment logistics? Gastao pointed out that e-commerce sales are growing more than 25% annually. There are only seven logistics companies in Brazil involved in e-commerce, and the trouble is that their growth is not keeping up with that 25% market growth. In China, local courier players dominate outside Tier 1 cities. Angela noted that 360Buy “has perhaps the best system, with more than 14 warehouses, covering 200 cities and 120 collection stations.” The Chinese government also has laws in place to let consumers easily make returns.

As Angela remarked at the very outset of this session, “We [US businesses] tend to want to drive the agenda. [Instead,] listen first, learn first.” Wise words, indeed.

For those that started the eCommerce revolution, the digital retail and eCommerce channel has had to work hard for this growth and in some instances, for the attention and respect in the industry. With the continued growth of digital retailing thanks to technology development and a smarter, more (and always) connected consumer, omni-channel retailing is here, and no longer just an option.

Shop.org and the National Retail Federation (NRF) understand this shift in the industry and the collaboration that is taking place within the retail communities, verticals and business units all over the world. In fact, beginning today, you’ll see how the associations that represent the global retail community are truly coming together.

The NRF Big Show is getting bigger and more digital than ever. And no, we’re not talking about the fabulous event app the team has put together. Beginning today, Shop.org is going to have the largest presence ever at the 101^st NRF Big Show, the premiere event of the retail industry.

A digital keynote. Two days of sessions specifically for digital retailers. A networking event. And so much more.

It’s collaboration with the company that represents retail – that mimics the crucial juncture and opportunity for collaboration that we are all witnessing within the industry itself. As digital retail continues to rise as the shining star of the industry, our innovation and some of the leaders within our community will be showcased at the number one retail event in the world.

For the first time ever, our Shop.org and NRF teams have put together a First Look Track at Retail’s BIG Show – so that the 22,000+ retail leaders attending this conference could take this opportunity to experience the thought-provoking education, and insight for which Shop.org is known, and immerse themselves in the digital retail experience.

During our First Look track sessions, and some of the other sessions our Shop.org team has put together including a Super Session slot featuring Jeffrey Rayport, One Kings Lane CEO, Doug Mack and Rent the Runway CEO, Jennifer Hyman, we’ll be discussing some of the most prevalent themes in the evolving world of retail today: globalization, personalization, organization and omni-channel retailing.

First, you’ll hear a lot about globalization. With a strong international contingent this year, especially from the UK and Brazil, there will be some incredible sessions on retail globalization at the BIG Show. Specifically, our team is proud to bring you a session on how retailers can tap into the eCommerce markets in the growing economies of China and Brazil which companies have been particularly successful in these markets.

The next big theme throughout this year’s First Look Track is personalization, which embraces marketing, site design, merchandising, and social media. We’ve got some great speakers discussing this theme, including Amy Africa’s session on Monday afternoon on neuromarketing and how we can influence the brain to buy with site and store design with consumer behavior in mind.

What about organization? This is one of the most difficult decisions occurring in retail board rooms today. If we look back over past 10 years — what changes are we seeing in terms of best practices in regards to organization? How can retailers effectively organize for international? Centralize it? Localize it? Some of both? We believe that Retail Means Jobs, so how do you get and retain the best talent – especially as digital retailers or as retailers trying to embrace digital? Our panel of retailer executives from Sheplers Western Wear, Tommy Hilfiger and OnlineShoes.com will discuss these questions and more on a session dedicated to the retail organization of the future.

And finally, the topic that binds us all in the retail industry – omni-channel retailing. Consumers expect a one-screen, one-store experience across your channels and touch points. Are our internal business operations and customer service systems in place to meet expectations of this smarter, mobilized, socialized future shopper? I believe the future shopper is already here and we’re seeing a few great examples of retailers that are ready for it. We’ll touch on this omni-channel topic in several of our sessions from Sucharita Mulpuru, Mitch Joel, McKinsey & Company and the Resource Interactive team. But, more specifically, we have put together two sessions featuring some of our most innovative, omni-channel retailers including Guitar Center, American Eagle and Warby Parker. Attend those sessions and you will hear about SOLOMO at its finest and see successful examples of using digital channels and assets to optimize for the omni-channel shopping experience.

Shop.org is proud to bring our digital retail community to the forefront of the biggest retail show in the industry. We hope to make the NRF Big Show bigger, stronger, and more digital than ever. We like to believe we are the reason they will have WIFI for all attendees for the first time in their 101 years and have that awesome app. We hope to see many of you there to see for yourself. If not, make sure to follow along on both the Shop.org and NRF Big Show blogs as we cover stories from some of the best the show has to offer.

In light of their astonishing growth and as a preview to Doug’s upcoming appearance as a Super Session speaker at Retail’s BIG Show, we reached out to CEO Doug Mack for our most recent Talking With… interview. During our conversation, Mack repeatedly touched on a few key themes that apply to leading and succeeding with just about any retail business in the world: hone in on innovation, embrace design and technology, leverage your data, and optimize every aspect of the customer experience. While Doug points to some of the companies and brands that he looks to for inspiration, I can only imagine how many companies and brands already are inspired by his leadership and the near-flawless focus at One Kings Lane on website design, online merchandising and building the next game-changing lifestyle brand.

Social media is obviously changing the way some people shop and engage with your brand. What are some of the new and exciting trends in social?

We’ve had great success at One Kings Lane with social media to fuel “word of mouth” around our brand – when you offer something unique and interesting, customers will now share it broadly via Facebook, Twitter, blogs and even old-fashioned email. Some exciting developments in social media are new “interest” focused communities such as Pinterest and Houzz. While Facebook does a great job at addressing the social graph, these emerging sites are addressing interest by providing environments for enthusiasts to spend time sharing what they love across a wide range of categories and interests, including design and home décor.

What does the future hold for flash sales? How is the business model evolving?

The Flash Sales model is very exciting to consumers, as they tend to get great products at better prices. My view is that innovation is critical for the continued growth of companies in the flash sale space. In our case, we were the first company to offer the Flash Sales model in the home market when we launched in 2009. We then followed up by evolving from a pure flash sales model when we launched the Tastemaker Tag Sales series, where we work with well-known designers and influencers to bring curated sales of one-of-a-kind and vintage items to One Kings Lane. Today, we also shop around the world to bring unique, exceptional items that are hand-selected and deliver tremendous value for our customers. In many ways, we’ve already evolved well beyond flash sales with the variety of merchandise we offer – along with the content we integrate into the experience.

Today’s hot topics in retail include all things mobile, tablet, social and flash. Looking forward, which of those items do you think will sink and which will swim?

I believe the mobile, tablet, social and flash trends will continue to be very relevant to consumers. The reality is that consumers are now becoming accustomed to searching and purchasing items directly from their smartphones and tablets – with tablets representing a particularly encouraging opportunity. Social will be embedded in all e-commerce experiences – so sites that offer an exceptional consumer proposition will benefit from it while those that are undifferentiated will suffer. In flash, I expect we’ll see vertical winners evolve in the years ahead in categories such as apparel, home, kids and travel – while sites that are not a leader at any particular category will eventually sink.

What do you find the most exciting about working in the e-commerce field?

I’ve been in e-commerce for more than a decade now – and I absolutely love the opportunity to find innovative new ways to excite consumers. As we have this mindset in our company, it forces us operate in a non-traditional way in almost every area of our business, from merchandising to product to marketing to operations. For example, unlike traditional retail, our shelves change every single day, 365 days a year, which presents major operational challenges – that as we solve one by one, provides us with huge sources of competitive advantage. The end result is that we continue to deliver a dramatically new and different retail experience for our customers – and yet, despite our fast traction, I think we might still be in the first inning of all the innovation we have planned in the years ahead. The amount of open space to innovate makes it exciting to come to work at One Kings Lane each day.

With your background in design and technology, do you ever find yourself getting caught up in website design and looking less at the retail component? How important is website design for retailers?

That is a critical question for any e-commerce company. We have a phrase that we use at One Kings Lane that one of our employees came up with at our last all company summit – “the merch is the fuel to the car.” Everything we do in the business is critical to our success – but if we don’t get the merch right, we won’t get very far. Design and technology are critical aspects to our overall experience – as we apply these disciplines in three key directions – to our consumers, our employees (who run the business) and our suppliers. One of our driving principles in the application of design and technology is to stay focused and keep it simple – and this certainly manifests itself in our website design. In fact, I believe companies that have hard-to-navigate and cluttered websites is a result of a lack of focus internally – you can see their lack of cohesive strategy represented in the experience on their website.

The feedback we continue to receive from our customers is they love the simplicity of our site. One of the hardest things is to not implement every idea we have for fear it will clutter the experience. We relentlessly curate both the merchandise and website experience to make it a joy for our customers.

How does technology empower retailers today? What are the opportunities of innovation and convergence between the two industries?

Just having a website no longer cuts it for retailers. For retailers to be successful, they need to offer their customers an opportunity to interact with their brand easily from wherever they are, whether it’s on their phone, at home, or in the mall. Also, the future of commerce lies in the massive leverage of data – to have an unfair advantage is optimizing every inch of the customer experience – how you market, how you merch, how you serve. This is extremely hard to do – but those who crack the code will have a systematic advantage in the market.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing digital retailers right now?

Companies have been working on incremental improvements to refine the customer experience, but my sense is we’ll start to see a wave of companies like One Kings Lane that bring a game-changing new experience to bear. The challenge is to sort out if you’ll be part of changing the landscape – or more impacted by it. My sense is digital retailers are also a bit too dependent on certain tools that work today, such as email and SEM, but need to push their thinking on how to be more creative in their customer contact strategies.

What skills do you look for when you’re hiring new staff at One Kings Lane? Do you think today’s graduates are bringing the right experiences to the table?

In every employee we look for passion, agility, innovativeness and customer focus. We focus huge mind share on hiring employees that fit well in our company culture. We’ve had great success hiring recent graduates who have the above traits, along with experienced individuals from a wide variety of industries, including e-commerce, retail, internet and media.

As a recognized leader in your field, who or where do you look for inspiration?

I am a huge fan of major brands that fundamentally change industries. I continue to have utmost respect for Nike, Apple and Starbucks in particular as they completely changed their respective markets, but then never stopped evolving. Apple for instance not only changed the PC industry, but then the music industry – then the mobile industry – and now the PC industry again (via the introduction of tablet computing). All of these companies started with a core innovation, but did not rest on their laurels. As One Kings Lane builds the next lifestyle brand, I will continue to look at these game-changing companies for inspiration.

So, if you thought that consumers might be ready to take a break from all that online shopping of late, history would indicate – likely not. For the week between December 27, 2010, and January 2, 2011, comScore calculated that online retail sales in the U.S. topped $2 billion. This year, Google expects the holiday 2011 shopping momentum to continue right on through the second week of January. And this isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon – IMRG in the U.K. is forecasting that U.K. online consumers will spend a tidy GBP186.4 million on Christmas Day this year, followed by another GBP367.8 million on December 26 (and that’s almost double from the same day last year). It stands to reason, then, that if anyone thought we were in for a little breather, in fact we all need to proverbially buckle up, as the ride’s not over yet. A few tips based on this research:

Continue to invest in search for the next several weeks. Google last year found that searches for “sales” and “returns” peaked on December 26 in both 2008 and 2009. With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, December 26 this year is a public holiday, so it’s a fair bet that customers will be heading into stores and online.

Christmas Day is a golden day for social media. On Christmas Day 2009, Experian Hitwise found that Facebook edged out the main Google page for “most visited site” (unlike the other 364 days of 2009). Similarly, last year IMRG found that, in the U.K., “…Facebook received more site visits than Google as people logged on to wish their friends Merry Christmas.”

Move that excess inventory – but also showcase new merchandise. Get customers excited with fresh, new products (and with which to spend their newly acquired gift cards), especially as they consider which “it” items to invest in for 2012. Let customers easily share ideas, looks and comments via social media outlets.

Cater to returns and exchanges. Make sure your website makes returns and exchange information clear and easy to find, right from the home page and key landing pages, and make sure store locator information on mobile devices is easy to find.

For additional ideas about post-holiday shopping campaigns, see also the 2010 white paper from Listrak.

Lest you think that shipping deadlines will have consumers rushing to finish their shopping, however, history would tell us otherwise.  Last year, the Google Retail Advertising Blog noted that, as of December 21, the average consumer had completed just two-thirds of his / her shopping, and (gulp!) almost one out of five hadn’t yet made a single holiday purchase.  This year, 34.8% of online consumers expect to buy their last holiday gift between Thursday, December 22 and Saturday, December 24. We may see something of a sales surge repeat from last year, when comScore found that online shoppers spent $2.45 billion just in the week ending December 26, up 16.6% from the same period in 2009.

Since this ingrained procrastination behavior clearly isn’t changing significantly this year, a few thoughts for retailers contemplating their marketing and merchandising strategies for the days immediately leading up to December 25.

Consumers want – and are buying - gift cards.  Two-thirds of online consumers tell us that a gift card is what they most want to receive this year for themselves – and, it turns out, 34% this holiday season have already bought gifts cards for others. A perennial last minute gift solution, make online gift cards accessible from the homepage and use them in product and cart cross-sells. Showcase all the online gift card options and don’t confuse customers with physical cards (that, by then, have no chance of arriving in time). Amazon offers gift card delivery via email (either immediately or scheduled up to a year in advance), via Facebook wall post, printable at home, or with a holiday card that includes free one-day shipping, while The Home Depot lets customers customize the electronic gift card with a photo or video clip.

If you’ve got ‘em, flaunt ‘em – virtual goods, that is. Amazon last year sent an email just a day or two before Christmas touting its lineup of books, music, videos, and games available for instant purchase, download and online gifting. If you’re lucky enough to offer any kind of virtual good, promote that across marketing and social media to be the retail hero for panicked customers. If you don’t offer virtual goods, try a suggestion from Michael Griffin of Adlucent – the product (vs. cash) gift card: instead of posting a $25 gift card to the friend’s Facebook wall, the customer could post a card with a picture of the product that he or she actually bought from your online store, with the assurance from you, as the retailer, that the item is on its way – if due for delivery after December 25.

Push buy online, pick up in store (or – special delivery?).  While over half (53.2%) of online shoppers plan to do some of their remaining holiday shopping online this week and next, almost as many (47.3%) will also be shopping in department stores, and one-quarter in specialty stores such as electronics and clothing stores, among other venues.  If you offer a “buy online, pick up in store” fulfillment option, make it front and center on the homepage, add a reminder on the product and check out pages, and feature it in marketing emails and social media. Once in store, make sure the in-store pick up experience is smooth – even enjoyable! – for the customer (who might just pick up a few other items while they’re there…). As another idea, Barnes & Noble continues to offer same-day delivery within Manhattan. While implementing that kind of service at this point in the season is likely infeasible for most, it’s perhaps something one could pull off in certain metro areas close to a store (even just for a few days, perhaps?), or via courier service (and perhaps only for one’s very best customers).

Promote the store as a welcome destination. For retailers with brick & mortar stores, now’s the time to push the store locator information front and center on the homepage, in emails, and via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. In emails and social media, talk about gift ideas waiting in store (even already wrapped) as well as in-store services  and events such as valet or complimentary parking, cookies and hot chocolate, story time for kids while parents shop, 5-minute massages, gift wrapping, sales proceeds for a specific charitable organization, etc. Additionally, in the coming days, 29% of online shoppers plan to use their smartphone to look up retailer information, and 34% will use their tablet devices to do the same – so make sure that info is up to date and works flawlessly on both devices.

Augment service around returns. Buying at the last minute sometimes results in not quite the right gift, so bolster customer confidence that you’ll handle returns quickly and efficiently. Remind customers of return options, including gift receipts (close to two-thirds of consumers say they include a gift receipt with their gift), return time frames (maybe extend those a bit temporarily to increase customer buying confidence), and perhaps a free returns shipping offer (customers say they value this kind of offer quite a bit).

Know that you’ll be competing with post-holiday season email messages. Last year, we saw several retailers, among those Target and HSN, who started to promote their after-Christmas sales as early as December 22. These offers were made only online and specified that delivery would occur only after December 25, but – assuming we see these again this year – this type of message will add to the general messaging cacophony around that time.

For additional perspective on gift cards specifically, please see Digital Gift Cards: A Retail Work in Progress by CashStar and RSR, and Gifting the e-Way by the e-tailing group and CashStar, in the Shop.org White Paper Library.

Per the eHoliday 2011 pre-holiday findings, conducted for Shop.org by partner BIGresearch, half of retailers surveyed indicated that their standard shipping deadlines this year will fall between Monday, December 19 and Wednesday, December 21.

Turns out that’s about the same time that over half of these same retailers will also end free standard shipping promotions.  As we indicated in October, over half of the retailers we surveyed either somewhat or significantly increased from last year their 2011 holiday budgets for free shipping offers, while another 40% said they were keeping that budget item in line with last year.

Speaking of which, last year over half of consumers surveyed noted that they didn’t finish their holiday shopping – in any channel! – until the last two weeks of December.  Good news, then, that over two-thirds of retailers this year will offer express one-day or overnight shipping as late as December 22.

Still, we all know that express two-day and one-day shipping is expensive, regardless of whether the retailer or the customer is picking up that tab. Instead, make the most of this week before standard shipping deadlines expire by:

• Posting the shipping deadlines calendar front and center on every page of their site.  Consumers ranked shipping deadline calendars a 4.0 out of 5 (5 being “most important”), so they really want to see this information. Since consumers don’t always start their shopping process on the home page, site-wise messaging will likely be largely welcomed.
• Ensuring the term “shipping deadlines” actually works in your site search. Obvious?  And yet several retail sites I tried recently showed “no results found” (or, somewhat oddly, instead tried to show me “related products”).  By contrast, a search for “shipping deadlines” on Toys’R’Us immediately takes the user to an informative holiday-specific page, while Neiman Marcus, Sephora and Sur La Table take the user to a shipping information page, if without holiday-specific information, however.
• Creating a deadline countdown graphic. Time-pressed customers may also benefit from a standard shipping deadlines countdown graphic, which may spur more action than just a series of dates on a page.  Retailers can then add the same countdown graphic to emails, apps and social media posts to continue that consistent reminder.  Barnes & Noble offers a “time left until Christmas” countdown clock (once you find the holiday delivery schedule page within the Holiday Gift Guide, that is – and, no, searching via “shipping deadlines” won’t get you there), but I wonder if a countdown clock for the standard shipping deadline itself might not be more useful and create a greater sense of urgency.
• Making prominent the store locator. For retailers with brick-and-mortar operations, add a store locator link to the shipping deadlines message or graphic.  Ship to store, in-store pick up and – oh, yes!  – shop in store messages should take over in all of these same areas as shipping deadlines pass.  Going a step beyond simply finding a store, Sears has placed a mini-pop up window at the top of its site touting “Local Availability”, which prompts users to “see local availability for products and find the quickest delivery options” by simply entering city, state or zip code.

For the full eHoliday shipping deadlines survey results, please see the Shop.org site.

All of this demonstrates a fantastic start to the season, to be sure – but now the focus turns to making the most of the 23 shopping days left. Before shipping deadlines hit in a few weeks, historical patterns tell us that we can likely expect the next two Mondays to be significant sales days also. My take is that retailers are sitting on a gold mine of sales data garnered over Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday, which they should now use to make the most of the next few weeks:

Turn best seller data into social media, email, site content. Those rafts of Thanksgiving weekend sales data on best sellers and most popular items are perfect for “trend” messaging. Pepper social media outlets, emails, Web sites and mobile apps with this trend content – it’s up to the minute, it’s authentic (straight from fellow customers), and it’s a rich source of ideas for customers to feel they’re buying the “right” gifts this season (whether for others or for oneself).

Don’t take your eye off the paid search ball. As Michael Griffin of Adlucent noted in the 2011 Shop.org Holiday Strategy & Planning Guide, proactively managing paid search through the extended holiday shopping season is crucial. Review which categories and products spiked over Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday, then see if it’s feasible to advertise those proactively; adjust day parting rules to reflect holiday shopping behavior (patterns may be quite different now than even a few weeks ago); and add site links to top performing categories to improve click through rates and traffic.

Remarket shopping carts to customers who didn’t quite get to “confirm order.” Maybe the customer just wasn’t sure, maybe they were shopping at multiple sites, maybe they’re still holding out for a better offer even now – my guess is that there are many abandoned shopping carts sitting out there after last weekend. Whatever the original reason for leaving, that unrequited shopping cart is a natural way to reengage (quickly!) with the customer, with or without a sweetener such as a discount or shipping offer. Check out several papers in the Shop.org White Paper Library on this topic, from companies such as SeeWhy and Listrak.

According to the Shop.org and Forrester Research 2011 State of Retailing Online Report: Merchandising, Headcount & Global Strategies, as the web has grown in importance, we’re seeing retailers invest in the additional staff needed to support their growing businesses.

In general, the average online retailer reported web dedicated teams of full-time hire counts (excluding customer service and fulfillment) of 50 employees and 29% expect to increase full-time headcount between 10-20% for web and e-commerce teams. These numbers show conservative increases  given the overall growth in the e-commerce channel, but growth nonetheless.

So where are these retailers investing in additional headcount for their teams? In general, web retailers are investing in the following:

• Mobile:  According to our survey, increased web traffic from mobile devices and lofty goals for mobile to drive sales is sparking jobs for mobile-savvy retailers. About 44% of retailers say they plan to hire full-time employees dedicated to mobile efforts.
• Merchandising:  Over 58% of online retailers plan to add headcount in the areas of merchandising, a core component of an e-commerce business focused on website design and usability, customer experience, product categorization and details, and conversion.
• Analytics: More devices being used at increasing frequency means retailers have access to more data than ever before. But, what good is the data without time to efficiently manage the volume, analyze it, and turn insights into action?  A deeper dive into data from site and vendor analytics are enough to push 46% of retailers surveyed to add headcount to their analytics function in the coming year.

Overall, we’re seeing conservative growth taking place, but job creation when it matters most. At Shop.org, we’re proud that for years, our community has supported the retail community with our own job board, dedicated to helping retailers and the technology providers that support retail to help find and hire talent.  In fact, in just the last month, over 50 jobs in the digital space were posted at companies including: Bed Bath & Beyond, Henri Bendel, Office Depot, The Home Depot, ModCloth, Talbots, and The Tractor Supply Company.

As retail continues to power millions of jobs around the United States (and around the world) we can only predict that retailers with a strong and growing web team will lead the pack as consumers continue to expect and demand better, stronger, and faster personalization, product availability, and customer service at every screen (and store) at their disposal.

42 million strong, and counting…

• Online shoppers are primed for Cyber Monday deals. According to a recent consumer survey conducted by BIGresearch, more than 5 out of 10 adults over the age of 18 plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year. Good news: among online shoppers, that’s more like 9 out of 10. Much like last year, the ubiquity of broadband connections in homes across the U.S. means that almost 9 out of 10 Cyber Monday shoppers will shop from a computer at home – just 16% plan to shop while at work
• Tap email, search and social media to catch online shoppers early – and throughout the day. Well over three-quarters of retailers surveyed are planning to offer special promotions for Cyber Monday, so the key is for retailers to beat competitors to the messaging punch. Much like last year, Cyber Monday shoppers will be ready early: 58.3% of online shoppers will look for Cyber Monday deals in the early morning. Retailers need to get out their Cyber Monday emails, Facebook wall posts and Tweets early to catch the shopper’s eye – and share of wallet (nor should retailers forget about search as part of the mix). That said, shopping demand will continue throughout the day, with as many as one-quarter of online shoppers still browsing deals by the late evening. As such, a steady, coordinated series of Facebook and Twitter updates highlighting offers and specials will stoke consumer interest throughout the day.
• One quarter of Cyber Monday shoppers anticipate using mobile devices. The real standout this year, of course, is the continued rise of mobile devices for Cyber Monday shoppers: 14.5% of all Cyber Monday shoppers expect to use a smartphone and/or tablet device for at least part of their shopping, double the number we saw last year (6.9%). Among online shoppers this year, however, that’s actually a whopping 23.8%. For a retailer, that’s another golden opportunity to proactively make an offer to a specific customer, especially if that retailer can tap into location-based mobile advertisements with a specific call to action.

For further information, please see the NRF press release and data.

So, with four weeks to go before December 25, what does Black Friday weekend tell online retailers?

Economic worries notwithstanding, U.S. consumers appear – for now, at least – determined to have a good holiday this year.

• Of the estimated total $52.4 billion that we lavished on gifts (and ourselves) this weekend, 37.8% was spent directly online (a tidy $19.81 billion), up from 33.3% last year (or $14.98 billion).
• Online Black Friday weekend buyers spent an average of $470.79 on holiday shopping, or 18% more than the average for all shoppers this weekend. Of that, online Black Friday Weekend buyers spent $246.15 directly online. But in something of a surprise turn of events, men spent an average of $200 online, women spent closer to $100 online, showing how men like a bargain but may not want be in stores to nab those.
• Top of the shopping lists for online shoppers this weekend: clothing and accessories (65.2%, vs. 51.4% of all shoppers); books and media (55.4%, vs. 37% of all shoppers); consumer electronics and computer-related accessories (54.9%, vs. 39.4% of all shoppers); toys (46.8%, vs. 32.6% of all shoppers), and – of course! – gift cards (37.4%, vs. 23.1% of all shoppers).

However, consumers are still intent on finding value, and are actively doing the homework – and pavement pounding legwork – to find that.

• One-third of online Black Friday weekend buyers shopped on Thanksgiving Day, rising to almost three-quarters on Saturday. Of those who shopped on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), half got to the store by 6 a.m., with fully one-third arriving before or right around midnight.
• True to cross-channel shopper form, online Black Friday weekend buyers shopped in multiple venues, not only the web, including department stores (58.3%) and discount stores (43.8%) to specialty stores such as electronics (43%) and clothing and accessories (37.4%).

Retailers need to communicate the value that they offer clearly, repeatedly, and across all channels and marketing media to get consumers to make that purchase.

Online shopping is now firmly entrenched across three screens, requiring increased coordination between retail teams.

• As predicted, smartphones and tablet devices figured prominently in online Black Friday weekend buyer shopping. Over half of those who own a smartphone or a tablet device planned to use these to research products and compare prices, while 2 out of 5 planned to look up retailer information such as locations, hours, and the like. Not surprisingly, tablet device owners were somewhat more likely to purchase products via this device than were smartphone owners.

In the weeks ahead, retailers need to ensure that online shopping works flawlessly (and, I’d add, intuitively) across the web, smartphone and tablet device, as well as integrated with stores and catalog operations. That means not just from a technical standpoint, but also in terms of ongoing coordination between teams spanning marketing, merchandising, customer service, fulfillment and, of course, development.

Don’t let up on site monitoring and operations. When we asked retailers last year in our post-holiday survey, “Looking ahead, what ONE thing will you do differently for holiday 2011?” inventory management and site performance topped the list. In recent years, the first three Mondays following Thanksgiving are among the top online grossing days for the holiday season, so retailers need to be prepared for that onslaught of traffic and demand (this year, that’s Cyber Monday (November 28), along with December 5 and 12). Monitor the site vigilantly, prepare the fulfillment and customer service teams, and ensure that marketing isn’t planning to push a product or category that merchandising knows is selling through faster than anticipated.

While I tend to focus primarily on online retail, the results of both the October and November Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey from BIGresearch underscore again that consumers are really cross-channel shoppers, primed to take advantage of retailers’ holiday deals across the Web, stores, smartphones and tablet devices – or where and when it suits them best.

Consumers are waiting for holiday marketing (read: offers) to kick in. Just under half of holiday shoppers said they haven’t started their shopping yet, in any channel. Not surprisingly, more women than men have started their shopping. Adults aged 25 to 34 years old appear the most organized among us, with 58 percent having already started their shopping. This year, shoppers are actively checking for deals before shopping this holiday weekend and, of course, on Cyber Monday.

Cash is king. More than four in 10 consumers say their debit cards will be their primary payment method for holiday purchases this year, representing a ten-year high for this payment type. Among all consumers, one-quarter expect to use cash most often; for online shoppers, that’s a tad lower (21.6%). For online retailers, the mandate is clear: offer and clearly market to customers multiple payment options, including debit cards and alternative payment options such as PayPal. The September 2010 Shop.org / Javelin Strategy & Research “Merchant Perspectives on Online Alternative Payments” study found that, at the time, 54% of consumers wanted to use alternative payment methods, but only one-third of retailers surveyed actually offered these, possibly stunting conversion and increasing cart abandonment.

Age foretells likelihood to spend more this year… Across all channels, approximately half of U.S. consumers plan to keep holiday shopping budgets largely in step with last year. The good news: 19% of online shoppers plan to spend more this year than last for the holiday shopping season, a slightly higher percentage than all holiday shoppers. Also likely to spend more this year are young adults: well over one-third of 18 to 24 year old consumers will spend more this year than last, along with 28 percent of 25 to 34 year olds who plan to spend more. By contrast, just 10% of 45 to 55 year olds expect to increase their budgets.

…As well as which gifts consumers are likely to buy. Among U.S. consumers aged 18 to 34, clothing and accessories top the list for two-thirds, while closer to half of consumers age 45 and older plan to buy this category. Three out of 5 consumers aged 18 to 44 will hone in on books and media (including CDs, DVDs, videos, and video games) – but that number drops significantly for older consumers. Consumer electronics top the list for four out of 10 shoppers ages 18 to 44.

Cash is king (again). Not only do U.S. holiday shoppers want to pay via cash-based options, two thirds of online consumers also want to receive cash themselves – that is, gift cards. Knowing this, well over half (57.3%) of all holiday shoppers this year have gift cards on their holiday shopping lists (and that’s closer to two-thirds for online shoppers). Just as we see gift cards strategically placed in stores at cash registers, retailers shouldn’t miss the chance to cross-sell their online customers with gift cards before or during the check out process – particularly if online gift cards offer personalization and/or other convenience features (e.g. adding a video greeting, instant delivery via Facebook wall, etc.) that a physical card doesn’t offer. And just think of the post-holiday marketing opportunities that all those gift cards out there afford retailers after December 25 has come and gone.

Here’s how retailers are ramping up their sites in anticipation of the big holiday weekend. Have you made your list and checked it twice?

Online vehicles promote in-store… eHoliday 2011 pre-holiday results released today reveal that retailers aren’t leaving store foot traffic to chance, and are harnessing every available marketing vehicle to drive shoppers into stores. Four out of five retailers surveyed that operate brick and mortar stores note they’ll be using email to promote their Black Friday in-store specials. Social media outlets will be bursting with in-store information this week: three-quarters of these retailers will tap Facebook to get the word out (up from just over half last year), while more than half will be busily tweeting about their in-store offers and happenings (up from not quite one third last year).

…Though home page messaging and search appear under-tapped. Somewhat oddly, only about half of these same retailers plan to tap home page messaging and search marketing to promote in-store Black Friday specials. The key here is to remember than consumers do not see retailers in terms of channels, but rather as a variety of touch points for one and the same retailer. Knowing that consumers are going online to explore in-store specials and offerings, savvy retailers will make that information – along with store location, hours and other in-store shopping aides – easily accessible via all touch points.

Online, Cyber Monday is key, while Thanksgiving Day offers grow. One third of retailers surveyed started promoting Thanksgiving and Black Friday specials as early as last week, while another third will be starting today. Consumers can expect marketing campaigns and programs that span special email campaigns (four out of five retailers surveyed), as well as deals on specific products or categories (close to three-quarters of retailers). Retailers are warming to the idea of special promotions specifically for Thanksgiving Day this year, but, given its established traction with consumers, over three-quarters of retailers surveyed will have a Cyber Monday offer. Cyber Monday offers will center on percentage off coupons for close of half of retailers surveyed, along with limited time promotions and free standard shipping for approximately one-third.

At every touch point, be ready for the crush of traffic. As examples such as Target have shown in recent months, online retailers need to be ready for the crush of traffic sure to grace their online doorsteps over the coming long holiday weekend. While the Target platform is as yet fairly new, site outages clearly can (and do) happen to anyone. Every retailer would be wise to do another round of load testing in the next day or two, as well as make sure processes and lines of communication between development, marketing and customer service (at very least) are firmly established and well rehearsed in case the site is ever unavailable. Review your “we’ll be back soon” page to make sure it is helpful (what’s happening? How can the customer call customer service to place an order? Store locator or list and hours? etc.) and also true to the brand (visuals, voice, etc.) – with nary a hint of “Error 404 – Page not found”.

For the full results of the November NRF / BIGresearch consumer survey, please see the eHoliday results, press releases and survey data.