As we move into the holiday shopping season, internet marketers may be pleased to learn that comScore's Q3 2010 ecommerce report shows online spending is on the rise.
According to the report, the third quarter demonstrated a 9 percent year-over-year increase. It also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of positive YoY growth following economic hardship last year. Overall ecommerce spending exceeded $32 million in Q3 2010.
ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni believes that current unemployment rates may result in consumers cutting back on gift buying this holiday season, but he says there are very "divergent spending patterns between the 'haves' and the 'have nots.'" Thus, businesses could see sales bloom in the next few weeks – Fulgoni characterizes the report as "a fairly positive indicator for the upcoming holiday season."
To catch the interest of consumers, marketers should remember that holiday shoppers are online searchers. According to ChannelAdvisor's Ecommerce Survey, 59 percent of respondents start looking for gifts on search engines and 58 percent of them plan to purchase presents online. Businesses should seed their sites with content that will catch consumers' clicks, then link their content to conversion pages to catch their cash.
