People are becoming comfortable buying things like appliances online now. |
People bought more than last year. You see the categories not changing very much from years past. We all expected a heavy gadget-type of Christmas. |
People trust that their on-time delivery is going to happen. |
Retailers are able to extend their business online and capture significant sales. |
The 2005 holiday season was a gadget year for consumers of all ages, and consumers continued to show their love for free shipping. |
The advertising market is obviously far stronger than a few years ago, and Glam is going after a lot of luxury brands that hadn't yet come online then and who still might be hesitant about it, and offering them a very controlled environment to test the waters, |
The advertising market is obviously far stronger than a few years ago, and Glam is going after a lot of luxury brands that hadn't yet come online then and who still might be hesitant about it, and offering them a very controlled environment to test the waters. |
The consistently high level of satisfaction each year increases the future expectations for online sales. More consumers are taking advantage of the benefits of e-commerce to avoid holiday crowds and purchase competitively priced gifts. Many of the free shipping promotions help level the playing field among the sales channels, which elevates satisfaction amongst online shoppers. |
The fact that apparel was one of the more dominant product categories shows that consumers have a high comfort level with buying online. |
The issue of shipping has been a difficult one for a lot of retailers. It could be one of the issues from this year that we see companies struggling with how to change in 2006. |
The lines are really blurring between toys and gadgets. |
Then, once someone dangled it, others had to ante up. |
They failed to differentiate themselves in this market - going up against Smarterkids.com that is using customization, |
They know the brands they are going to find and they know that they will usually be able to return items if they need to. In a sense, online retail now looks more like traditional retail, where apparel has long been a mainstay throughout the year and especially during the holidays. |
They've been very aggressive so far. It's interesting, because for the past six years they've been trying to wean people off the idea that the Internet is all about low prices. |