Holiday Selling
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Business
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Merchant Voice
7 ways to increase newsletter sign-ups before the holidays
August 2, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
Less than five months to Christmas Day, now is the time you should be growing your newsletter database as fast and effectively as possible. I just signed up - or attempted to sign up - to 14 online gift retailers' newsletters and here is what I'd suggest. 1. Put your newsletter sign-u...
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Email Marketing
Email, Mobile, On-site Driving 2012 Holiday Sales
December 6, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Retail holiday sales for 2012 from the first of November through Cyber Monday rose 16 percent year over year to more than $16.3 billion. Email marketing, mobile shopping, and on-site promotions have all played an important role in online sales. The 16 percent boost in early holiday ret...
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Finance
Analyzing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Overall Retail Sales
December 3, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan
Cyber Monday online sales reached $1.47 billion, up 17 percent over last year, representing the heaviest online spending day in history, according to digital tracking firm comScore, which also reported that Black Friday sales reached $1.04 billion, besting last year's amount by 28 perce...
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Schools & Resources
16 New Ecommerce Books for the 2012 Holidays
December 3, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Here are new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for winter 2012. There are new titles on social media, conversion optimization, entrepreneurship, email marketing, and content creation. I compiled this record using Amazon’s "Books" category. I selected “Browse Subjects” and chose th...
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Design & Development
Mobile Devices Capture Increasing Share of Holiday Shopping
November 29, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan
While overall online commerce showed impressive gains over last year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday, the real standout this year was mobile commerce. Compared with the same period in 2011, mobile grabbed a much larger share of both shopping and actual purchases. According to IBM’...
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Google Ads
7 Last Minute Holiday Marketing Improvements
November 28, 2012 • Scott Smigler
Christmas is less than five weeks away. Here are seven last-minute holiday marketing improvements you can make to maximize sales. 1. Shop Your Site from Mobile Devices Smartphone and tablet users accounted ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
3 Tips for Holiday Returns and Exchanges
November 28, 2012 • Armando Roggio
When the giddy days of holiday sales end, online retailers frequently need to deal with the inevitable returns and exchanges barrage. But when customer contacts are seen as opportunities, even returns can be a tool to improve an ecommerce business. Online returns and exchanges are a po...
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Finance
Third-Quarter Ecommerce Results Bode Well for the 2012 Holiday Season
November 15, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan
The growth in online purchasing continues. In a survey of 1,989 online consumers conducted during the last week of October, digital-tracking firm comScore found that In Q3 2012, online sales grew 15 percent over the same period last year, compared with a two percent year-over-year growt...
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Email Marketing
Email Marketing: Planning Your Holiday Calendar
November 12, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Email marketing is a powerful driver of holiday sales. But haphazardly sending emails is not the way to optimize campaigns. Taking just a few minutes to think about what an email will contain and when it will be sent should help to improve results. What follows is an example holiday em...
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Conversion
4 Ideas for Cyber Monday Sales
October 30, 2012 • Armando Roggio
The Monday after Thanksgiving — Cyber Monday — could see more than $1.25 billion in online U.S. sales this year, as eager holiday shoppers look for special web pricing. Like it or not, since about 2005 online retailers have trained shoppers to bargain hunt the weekend after the Thanksg...
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Google Ads
Primping Your Holiday Pay-per-click Promotions
September 28, 2012 • Scott Smigler
A passive approach to pay-per-click advertising often results in missed opportunities. But achieving optimal returns from your PPC campaigns isn’t complex. For holiday PPC promotions, maximizing profits means doing three things well. Create a calendar. Plan your holiday promotions wit...
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Email Marketing
5 Holiday Email Marketing Tips
September 20, 2012 • Carolyn Nye
For ecommerce businesses, September is crucial for planning a successful holiday-sales season. For email marketing, starting the planning now will allow more time for last minute changes and time-sensitive promotions. Below, I'll offer five tips to make the most from your holiday email...
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Email Marketing
Using Email to Promote Holiday Sales; Pros and Cons
March 15, 2012 • Carolyn Nye
With St. Patrick’s Day near, companies are scrambling to deliver emails to promote green-themed products, or events around the holiday. With all the buzz, it brings up a interesting question: When does it make sense for ecommerce merchants to embrace a holiday or event and incorporate i...
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Conversion
U.S. Online Holiday Sales Reach $37 Billion, Set Record
January 6, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Deep discounts and free shipping fueled a record setting November-to-December holiday shopping season for online merchants in 2011 in the U.S., according to a new report. Cyber Monday also saw an extraordinary $1.25 billion in sales. "The 2011 online holiday shopping finished with slig...
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Google Ads
Creating a Killer Post-Holiday PPC Strategy
January 5, 2012 • Scott Smigler
Now that the holiday shopping season is over, here are some New Year's pay-per-click advertising tips to help you continue the growth of your online revenue. Review Cost-Per-Acquisition Data on a Category Level It’s often a good practice for online retailers to organize their pay-per...
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Customer Retention
7 Post-Holiday Revenue Generators
December 29, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton
For many online retailers, the month of January is a slow one. Between consumers paying off Christmas purchases and those taking time to relax, the remaining online shoppers are seeking good deals on accessories and hoping to take advantage of clearance sales. There are ways, however, ...
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Conversion
Analyzing Cyber Monday Sales
December 2, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan
Black Friday and Cyber Monday were greatly anticipated by merchants and consumers and the results did not disappoint. Online sales on Cyber Monday reached $1.25 billion according to Internet tracking firm comScore, making it the biggest online spending day in history. Revenues increase...
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Platforms & Apps
15 Mobile Apps for Holiday Shopping
November 17, 2011 • Sig Ueland
There are many mobile apps to assist consumers with holiday shopping. There are deals and rewards apps, price comparison apps, and to-do and shopping assistant apps. Here's a list of 15 mobile apps that assist consumers. Review these apps to see the mobile-shopping options your cus...
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Checkout Tactics
10 Quick, Easy and (Almost) Free Ways to Close Sales During the Holiday Shopping Season
November 16, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton
The highly anticipated holiday shopping season is already upon us. Active online stores are seeing more traffic, and price comparison sites have been feeding more data than in previous months. The big boost in traffic starts around November 19, and then skyrockets right after Thanksgivi...
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Fraud Prevention
3 Types of ‘Return Fraud’ to Monitor this Holiday Season
November 14, 2011 • Armando Roggio
Return fraud, which is expected to cost brick-and-mortar retailers $3.48 billion this holiday season, could also snag online merchants — significantly increasing costs and chargebacks. Return fraud takes several forms but three stand out as real concerns for ecommerce. They are: (1) wa...
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Google Ads
Pay-Per-Click Ads: 5 Tips for Higher Clicks this Holiday Season
October 28, 2011 • Scott Smigler
Google’s paid-click revenue grew by an astounding 28 percent last quarter, thanks in part to a 5 percent rise in click prices. It’s likely that Google will set ad revenue records this fourth quarter also, due to the increase in holiday ad spending. To online retailers, Google’s surge i...
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Conversion
5 Holiday Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales
October 13, 2011 • Armando Roggio
The holiday shopping season runs from the end of October to the end of the year, and it can represent as much as 20-to-40 percent of a retailer’s total annual ...
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Conversion
Holiday Sales to Grow 2.8 Percent?
October 10, 2011 • Armando Roggio
The National Retail Federation has estimated that overall 2011 holiday sales — brick-and-mortar and online — will grow 2.8 percent reaching some $465.6 billion compared to $453 billion in 2010. The NRF uses a complex economic model that includes data from across the U.S. and world econ...
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Google Ads
Ramping Up Holiday Pay-per-click Advertising
September 29, 2011 • Scott Smigler
The holidays are coming. For many online merchants, this means dramatically increased revenue and conversion rates. Start ramping up for holiday pay-per-click advertising now to ensure that you maximize your profits — and build momentum for 2012. Below I’ve provided six tips that shou...
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Business
OverstockArt CEO Critiques Holiday Sales Performance
January 27, 2011 • PEC Staff
The holiday selling season is important for many online merchants. This includes David Sasson. He is the founder and CEO of OverstockArt.com, a retailer of reproduced oil paintings. The company saw a 25 percent increase in 2010 holiday sales, versus 2009. We spoke with Sasson to see wha...
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Social Media
Social Media’s Effect on Holiday Sales
December 2, 2010 • Paul Chaney
Ecommerce is playing an increasingly important role in holiday sales. But how much of that growth can be attributed to social media? I asked Hitwise, the competitive intelligence service, how much traffic ecommerce sites received from social media. A spokesman for Hitwise responded vi...
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Product Pages
8 Last Minute Holiday-Sales Boosters
November 18, 2010 • Pamela Hazelton
I'll be honest. The key elements for increasing traffic and sales this holiday season should have been put in place by October 15th. That doesn't mean, however, that all hope is lost for those who've procrastinated or otherwise failed to implement seasonal changes. Whether you didn’t g...
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Google Ads
Pay-Per-Click Advertising: 12 Tips to Boost Holiday Performance
November 2, 2010 • Scott Smigler
A well optimized pay-per-click advertising campaign can lead to gigantic increases in both revenue and profits. Conversely, a campaign that is neglected can lead to missed opportunities or significant financial losses. To help you prepare for this holiday season, here are 12 tips that ...
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Marketing & Advertising
5 SEO Reminders That Can Drive Holiday Traffic
September 23, 2010 • PEC Staff
As we head into the holiday season amid mixed economic signals, merchants are looking to maximize visibility while keeping expenses in check. In a recent Practical eCommerce webinar we reviewed some easy-to-implement SEO tips with Andreas Ryuta Stenzel, online marketing manager with TRU...
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Conversion
Increase Holiday Profits with Drop Shipping, Better Inventory Management
September 9, 2010 • PEC Staff
Holiday sales are vital for most ecommerce merchants. But the selling process can be a management headache when a merchant is juggling many different suppliers, sales channels, and stocking requirements. Couple those challenges with trying to decide which products to promote, and what t...
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