Maximize post-holiday sales with search and social media

Online consumers have been shopping up a storm this holiday season, which is certainly cause for online retailers to rejoice. As the Google Retail Blog pointed out this week, however, retailers need to make sure they’re not “turning off the lights” next week for customers who are ready to spend their gift cards, return and exchange those not quite perfect gifts, take advantage of sales, and perhaps simply treat themselves.

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.