JupiterResearch Finds That Online Retail Sales Will Continue to Increase During the 2008 Holiday Shopping Season

Business Wire, June 9, 2008

NEW YORK -- JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that online 2007 holiday sales reached $39 billion in the US, increasing 20 percent from the same period in 2006, while off-line sales remained dismal. To boost holiday sales during the 2008 holiday season, retailers must capitalize on the continued strength of the online market by improving their sites to accommodate heavy online traffic, as indicated in a new report Holiday 2007 Postmortem- Comparing Online and Off-line Sales Growth, published by JupiterResearch.

According to the report, retailers must expect that holiday shoppers will visit their site on the days with the highest share of Web traffic to retail sites, which continue to be Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. During this time frame, multichannel retailers should take steps to promote off-line store experiences, store locations, in-store inventory, and cross-channel service offerings such as in-store pickup and returns.

However, despite these high Web traffic days, no retailers report their busiest sales days corresponding with the busiest traffic days, reflecting the amount of online research shoppers do before purchasing items off-line. As a result, online retailers should make aggressive efforts to create online experiences that enable shoppers to research purchases they will most likely make at a later date. Features such as explicitly persistent shopping carts, comparison tools, recently viewed items, and inventory status can be helpful to browsing consumers.

"Retailers must prepare for a heavily promotional season - just as retailers kicked up their marketing and promotions last year, we expect them to do the same this year," explained Patti Freeman Evans, Online Retail Analyst and lead author of the report for JupiterResearch.

According to David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch, "Online retail continues to remain insulated from economic factors and multichannel retailers must use this to their advantage during the 2008 holiday shopping season."

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com. For details on JupiterResearch's methodology, visit www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/methodology or email press@jupiterresearch.com to request a detailed methodology statement. For additional information on this report or JupiterResearch's Online Retail research service, visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupiterresearch.com.

Related Reports: Gift Card Sales, Global Online Retail, US Online Retail Forecast, 2007 to 2012

Analyst Weblog: Patti Freeman Evans

About JupiterResearch

JupiterResearch provides unbiased research, analysis and advice, backed by proprietary data, to help companies profit from the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on their business. The company helps online businesses make critical decisions about technology selection, spending, staffing, and Web site effectiveness; advises consumer-facing companies with online advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies to understand, attract, convert and retain customers; and guides technology vendors and service providers on market opportunity, positioning, product definition, and pricing. JupiterResearch is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the US and Europe. For more information, visit www.jupiterresearch.com.