Shopping Online for the Holidays?

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A recent Yahoo!/Harris poll had some telling results for small business owners.

76% of holiday shoppers said they will buy gifts online;
75% said they are likely to buy gifts online from a small business;
63% said online niche retailers are a ‘best place’ to shop for hard-to-find gifts;
55% said it is important for their favorite specialty or gift stores to have an online presence;
60% said recommendations from friends and family are key influencers for shoppers;
6% said ‘social media’ are important.

Wow! I hope that gets your attention. You don’t have to sell gifts and doodads to read these numbers into your small business.

“Many consumers rely on small businesses that are online during the holiday shopping season because they offer variety, value and unique gifts that aren’t always available in stores,” said Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business, the division of Yahoo! that powers more than 40,000 online stores. “The survey shows that shoppers have high expectations, but also high confidence in buying holiday gifts online with small businesses.”

A couple of other points of note.

Trusted, secure online payment system (such as Paypal) 76%
Ease in navigating the site to browse, get information and make purchases 76%
Simplified customer checkout process 58%
Easy registration process 52%
24-hour customer services 47%
Attractive, professionally designed Web pages 39%

I want you to pay attention to the last point here – attractive design is where a lot of folks put the most attention. I’m not saying you should make homely pages (although there is some data to suggest testing this.) but I am saying that other factors may be more important. Don’t ignore them.

I wrote an article on some of these trust building web practices in a recent newsletter issue. Read More

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Posted by: John Jantsch on Nov 16, 06 | 6:06 pm
Category: Web Marketing | Tags:

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Barbara

I have an online store (gift baskets for birthdays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, even care package. Most people can't find what I offer in the store, and that makes the store special. Gift baskets can be hard to find, and it would be time consuming to make your own gift basket, it's so much easier to buy a gift basket online. This article is very relevant. Thanks!
Survey Software

A poll, powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), revealed that 64% of U.S. respondents selected 'discount stores' as their first or second stop when purchasing holiday gifts, whereas less than 6% chose luxury shops.

The findings also concluded that Americans are spending strong but buying cheaper this year.
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Bob D. Winstead

Hey John,

I'm a long time fan of your info and wisdom. This message really hits home with the mission of my company to put the online resources in front of the buying customer in an easy and memorable way. Thank you for your support of www.Eventsleader.com

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving,

Bob Winstead
John Jantsch

From: Pamela Slim
Email: pcs@ganas.com

Hi John!

This is great, validating information. I had a wild brainstorm the other night that fits with your 3 statistics:

-75% of people consider buying from small businesses -60% said recommendations from family and friends are key influencers for shoppers -6% said 'social media' are important

My audience is mainly comprised of corporate employees who have a biz on the side or are new small biz owners. A lot have bigtime marketing fears and could use a little boost. So I created a "Pam's Favorite Things" contest to encourage them to submit products or services which would make good gifts for the holiday season. I will post the top 10 winners on my site on Dec. 1, and really hope that it both encourages people to buy gifts from other emerging entrepreneurs as well as gives a boost in morale to those who submitted entries.

If you know anyone who would be interested in showing off some great products, you can find it on the Nov. 15 entry of my blog www.escapefromcubiclenation.com (I had trouble inserting the full link here)

Thanks John and Happy Turkey Day!

All the best,
-Pam
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Shawn A. Hessinger

Wow, John,
This should also be of interest to anyone who is under the impression that a costly bricks and mortar start-up is the only way to launch a small business venture. A website that does the job and inspires the right confidence in the customer can be the best bootstrap start for even retail businesses.

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