Bolstered by the 12% growth logged during the 2013 holidays, online retailers are expecting even bigger business this holiday season.
In a survey of 200 retailers highlighted recently by Marketing Land, 86% expressed expectations for higher holiday sales this year. Not a single online retailer said they expected a decline.
The holiday season in the U.S. will be compacted this year with Thanksgiving coming in the last week of November and CyberMonday falling on December 1st.
The poll among retailers in the U.S. and U.K. and found that:
- 27% of retailers expect holiday sales to increase between 11-15% while 46% expect single digit increases.
- 23% are planning their marketing push earlier than in previous years.
- 73% of retailers surveyed said they didn’t plan to increase their digital marketing budgets for the holidays.
- Free shipping and returns continue to be popular, with 41% of retailers say they’ll offer that to their customers.
- 27% of online retailers said they’ll be discounting select products to increase holiday sales in 2014.
The survey also found that retailers are planning to begin their holiday promotions early and to focus on customer service features to help increase sales.
