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Overseas Consumers Boost Spending, Australian Retailers Take Note
Data shows more dollars spent, less time browsing
Melbourne, 30 November 2009 – If Black Friday shopping trends in the US are anything to go by Australian retailers can expect consumers to spend more online this Christmas season. However, new behaviour suggests they’ll be more than likely to be shopping from lists, sticking to budgets, browsing less and viewing less pages per session.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., traditionally used as a benchmark for how retailers will fare during the Christmas holiday season, showed a 35% increase in the average dollar value spent per order when compared with this time in 2008, according to Coremetrics’ Black Friday Benchmark Report. Consumers also seemed to be buying more items than they did last year, with research showing an 18% increase.
Interestingly however, browsing habits had changed dramatically suggesting that people were sticking to budgets and shopping lists, and that they’d already conducted research into products prior to jumping online. Browsing sessions were down 5.4%, the number of people who left a site after viewing only one page was up by a staggering 39.4%, while page views per session declined by 30.4%.
Kevin Mackin, Coremetrics’ general manager for ANZ, elaborated on the benchmark results, “What’s most revealing about the results is the change in browsing behaviour. Abnormally high bounce rates and low page views per session is a warning to retail sectors worldwide – consumers want to find what they’re looking for quickly and without having to traipse through irrelevant information and product offers. They’ve got an agenda and they’re going to stick to it, so make their online shopping experience as smooth as possible.
“It’s not all bad news though! There’s been a healthy jump in the average amount of money people are willing to spend online which suggests that consumers have adjusted their shopping patterns to the reality of the economic downturn. I’d say, Australian and New Zealand retailers will definitely enjoy a return to higher spending this year but consumers will be thriftier, savvier and on the hunt for a bargain. So, it will come down to retailers being able to offer a superior online shopping experience that makes it easy for consumers to find products, peruse special offers and ‘check out’ quickly.”
Other sub-vertical findings from the Coremetrics’ Black Friday Benchmark Report 2009 include:
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Apparel retailers and jewellery retailers reported the biggest jumps in the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order, up 28.6% and nearly 25% respectively.
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Department stores did a phenomenal job of attracting new consumers to their sites, reporting a 151.7% jump. However, the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order actually decreased by 7.2%, suggesting that shoppers may be sitting on the sidelines waiting for more discounts and special offers.
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Sports gear and apparel retailers also reported a rise of 54.6% in the number of new consumers visiting their sites and a 61.3% jump in the number of sessions in which consumers completed an order. But the average dollar amount consumers spent per online order declined slightly by 3.1%.
Retail Summary:
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For the complete Black Friday Benchmark Report please visit: www.coremetrics.com
Source
These findings are based on data from Coremetrics Benchmark™, the industry’s only peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including commerce data, against those of the competition. More than 500 leading U.S. retailers, contribute their analytics data to Benchmark. All data is aggregated and anonymised. Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale’s, Coldwater Creek, L’Occitane en Provence, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Office Depot, PETCO and Williams-Sonoma are just a few of the participating companies.
Coremetrics recently enhanced Benchmark to include near-real-time data and added advanced functionality, such as sales trends by comparison period, conversion rates from Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns, and website traffic by browser type. Over the last year, Coremetrics has nearly doubled the number of companies participating
in Benchmark.
Coremetrics Benchmark comes standard with Coremetrics Analytics for no
additional cost.
About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is the leader in marketing optimisation. Its products help businesses relentlessly optimise their marketing programs to make the best offer, every time, anywhere, automatically. More than 2,000 online brands globally, transacting more than $20 billion this year, use Coremetrics’ Software as a Service (SaaS) to optimise their online marketing. Coremetrics’ solutions encompass advanced online analytics and integrated marketing optimisation applications, including search engine bid management, email targeting, ad impression attribution and cross sell recommendations to acquire customers more cost effectively, increase conversion rates, and increase lifetime customer value. Coremetrics is consistently recognised by industry analysts and thought leaders, and in 2008 was named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Program for Silicon Valley Internet, Media, Entertainment and Communications companies. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners, FTV Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and W Capital Partners, and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.
To learn more about Coremetrics, visit www.coremetrics.com.au or call
(Aus) 1800 69 CORE or (NZ) 0800 69 CORE.
Coremetrics has strongly supported online privacy since its inception. To learn more, visit www.coremetrics.com/privacy.
Media and Analyst Enquires:
Frances Ward
Solid Ink Communications for Coremetrics
Tel: +61 (0) 413 789 335
Email: frances.ward@solidink.com.au
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