SmallBusinessNewz

Study Identifies Free Shipping As Likely Sales Booster

Small business owners who have rejected the idea of offering free shipping may want to rethink the situation once again.  A survey's found that consumers love free shipping in a way that's not entirely proportional to the minor expense it represents.

Free Shipping Day May Bring You a Sales Boost

December 17th is National Free Shipping Day in the U.S. That means that on that day, consumers all over the country are going to be looking for great deals with free shipping options. While, if you can swing it, free shipping is always an attractive offering to customers, it would probably be a good idea to at least try it out on that day for a potential boost in business.

Time to Strongly Consider Going the Coupon Route

Experian Marketing Services released data from its coupon report: Benchmark Data and Analysis for Email Marketers. Among their findings, was that 80% of online coupon mailings garnered higher transaction-to-click rates and transaction rates than non-coupon campaigns. In other words, if you are using email marketing, you may want to seriously consider going the coupon route.

E-Commerce Sales Down from a Year Ago

comScore has released its retail e-commerce sales estimates for the third quarter, and found that US online retail spending totaled $29.6 billion, a 2% drop compared to last year. This is the first time on record that consecutive quarters have seen negative e-commerce spending growth compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Take a look at this chart:

Social Media and Free Shipping Big for Holiday Online Retail

The National Retail Federation shared some findings from Shop.org's eHoliday study, which was conducted by BIGresearch.  The results show that shoppers will see changes in retail marketing and promotions this holiday season as a response to economic uncertainty.

Customers Want Reviews, Free Shipping

There are some interesting findings from both Nielsen and Hitwise recently made available. Both look at online shopping during the holiday season, and provide some insight into some things businesses trying to sell their goods and services online may want to consider.