The holiday season is quickly approaching. It's the end of September and there are already less than 90 shopping days left!

If you run a B2C e-commerce site you need to have your plans in place for your PPC, SEO and Online Marketing efforts. In a couple of weeks we'll have some fresh data from Google on their findings for Holiday Intentions for 2009. But it doesn't hurt to revisit some of the information that was presented this time last year:

(from the Google 2008 Holiday Intentions Survey)

...in thinking about the 2008 winter holiday season, here's what we know: Both research and shopping will start early this year:
31% of consumers plan to start holiday shopping and research before Halloween and a majority (57%) will start before Thanksgiving.1

Therefore, the shopping has already begun...is your marketing strategy ensuring that your brand is top of mind throughout the entire research-purchase process and making it into the consideration set early on?

Consumers will spend more time looking for deals: 43% of consumers say they plan to spend more time this year shopping around for gifts because of the current state of the economy.1

Consumers are taking the time to research the right purchase...Brands will need to focus on having a strong presence and clearly expressing their value proposition to guarantee inclusion in the consideration set.

There are 5 fewer shopping days this year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, than last year: This is when the peak of conversions happen; therefore, retailers need to be wary of the tightened timeline and put strategies in place to lessen the crunch, by urging consumers to start purchasing before Thanksgiving!

1.OTX/ Google 2008 Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey, 9/16-9/24 2008, n=10,039



I'll post the 2009 Survey results as soon as they come out. Check back in about 10 days.

In the meantime if you think you need help getting your plans together or putting a plan in action give me a call.