Online Retailers Making Aggressive Promotions For Holidays, Even Same-Day Delivery

With the holiday season at full swing, many online retailers are at the starting line and ready to bid the shoppers to come there way. They are pulling out all the stops to get consumers to not only visit their website, but to actually make a purchase. The latest numbers show that the web traffic is there. The key is going to be advertising and promotions.

It has just been reported by content delivery network Akamai Technologies, that consumers are viewing close to 35% more pages on average of retail web sites than this time last year. Akamai’s has provided the figures via its’ Net Usage Index, which calculates the number of retail pages that are being viewed on an average day. It measures millions of page views per minute for hundreds of companies that Akamai serves content for.

The tech company also started tracking web traffic via mobile devices this year as well. 30% of retail traffic so far, is coming from mobile devices. With the increase of technology use and the comfort level using it, consumers are now conveniently shopping from their mobile devices wherever they are. Shoppers are making their purchases from their mobile devices, but also browsing for the latest retail store deals, in which they will simply go and buy it. Some retailers are offering same-day delivery as well.

With the immediate access from web use and mobile devices, the retailer that positions itself to advertise the right deal for the right price will probably come out on top. Many retailers are frequently updating their product inventory to attract online shoppers. The report stated that Sears Holdings Corp. currently has updated pricing on 80% of its’ online inventory. Amazon and Wal-Mart have updated 40% of their online catalogs in the last two weeks.

Therefore, this is where the aggressive promotions are weighing in. In November, Amazon started releasing new Black Friday deals every 10 minutes. The online retail giant already has low prices, yet this is yet another promotion to capture the attention of more shoppers. Sears also began promoting Black Friday deals. Wal-Mart promoted other Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving. CVS launched their online deals for the holidays starting on Thanksgiving also. Retailers know that the days of the shopping season are even going to be shorter this year, therefore, it is a must to take advantage of this first holiday shopping week.

A great statistic from PriceGrabber in the article showed from one of its’ surveys that 72% of shoppers believe they will receive better discounts during the Thanksgiving shopping week than throughout the remainder of the holiday season. There is no question retailers are being aggressive with promotions right now. E-Retailers can also attract shoppers by offering same-day delivery of their online purchases. A Same-Day Courier like 1-800 Courier can partner with any retailer and deliver fast, even from local retail stores. This Chicago Courier has the courier expertise to quickly implement same-day delivery for retailers during the holiday season.

Reference: 11.25.13, Internet Retailer, Amy Dusto, Holiday shoppers flock to retail web sites