Feb 25 2009
Hitwise Report Shows Email Drives Holiday Traffic
A new report available today from Hitwise reveals that 11% of all upstream traffic to the top 500 retail websites during the 2008 Holiday season came from email.
The clickstream data shows that the triumvirate of search (30%), other Retail 500 websites (15%), and email represented more than 50% of all upstream holiday web visits to the nation’s top e-commerce sites. So what can we take away from this information? For starters, it means that SEO continues to be a big deal for leading retailers worldwide, and rightfully so. Secondly, this data indicates to me that when people know which product (i.e. a Nintendo Wii) or category of products (a video game system) they are looking for, their first destination will be the search engine. From there, they will be taken to a retailer’s e-commerce site, which may inspire them to compare offers with other e-commerce sites.
But what if the customer doesn’t know what he/she is looking for?
Reading between the lines, one sees that email is an excellent tool for influencing purchase decisions when a customer is not seeking a specific product. In other words, email represents a prime opportunity to push products that a customer didn’t even realize they wanted until you presented it to them. Therefore, if you’ve been considering using affinity modeling in your email campaigns, the holidays might be the best time to give it a go.
The report also notes that the demand for gift cards has increased over previous holiday seasons, particularly in that people are searching for them over a more prolonged period of time than ever before.
With search traffic for gift cards remaining high over a 14-week period during this past holiday season, you may want to consider adding a prominent gift card call-to-action on your email campaigns that remains there throughout the duration of the holidays.
Just like the Christmas lights, some things are best left in place until Easter!
Yeah I can coroborate the uplift in gift card findings; we found the same for a client we were working with over the holidays. Seemingly people were searching for them at Christmas but also just before Valentines too
That’s very reassuring news, Holiday Guy. I do find it interesting that with all of the product information available online today, people still feel more comfortable playing it safe and giving gift cards as presents. But hey, whatever works!