DoubleClick Performics Unveils Holiday E-Commerce Trend Data

Recommendations based on nearly identical online consumer shopping patterns since 2003


Holiday Sales By Day From 2003 Through 2006

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DoubleClick Performics (www.performics.com), the performance marketing division of DoubleClick Inc., today released indexed data that illustrates important online buying patterns for the upcoming holiday season as a whole and for various days of the week.

“The peaks and valleys of consumer shopping behavior during the holidays are filled with misconception among marketers and the general business community. The National Retail Federation originally coined the term Cyber Monday for the Monday following Thanksgiving,” said Stuart Larkins, vice president of search for DoubleClick Performics. “This helped the industry understand that, while Black Friday is the biggest offline shopping day of the year, the following Monday brought much greater online sales volume, but they only scratched the surface with this finding. It’s more than just one Monday; it’s a Cyber Monday phenomenon, and the Monday following Thanksgiving tends to pale in comparison to the others that follow.”

The trending data illustrates year-to-year seasonal patterns as well as intra-week patterns, each with merchandising implications for marketers. In 2006, for example, the third Cyber Monday was the peak day of the season for DoubleClick Performics clients. This year brings an early Thanksgiving, a Tuesday Christmas, and an extra Monday. With a fifth Cyber Monday in 2007, the fourth could turn out to be the peak of the season. Black Friday, on the other hand, does not even rank in the top ten online sales days.

The data also sheds light on consumer shopping behavior within any holiday season week. Most offline holiday shopping happens on the weekends, but not everyone buys in the stores. Many go online Monday to purchase what they did not find over the weekend, price check with competitors, and pursue deep online discounts and deals. This explains the light online sales over the weekend and the Monday surge. Anyone interested in the visual graph illustrating the holiday trending data can email requests to areed@preturn.com.

Although online sales decline each week following Monday, research and other online activity continue. In fact, as the week progresses, consumers are likely using search to prepare for their weekend offline shopping. Recently, DoubleClick Performics teamed with Microsoft and ROI Research to survey online moms and learn more about this online-to-offline connection. The survey confirmed their habit of searching prior to making a purchase online or offline:

Seventy percent of respondents said they search before making any online purchase; 57 percent do so before making any offline purchase

Sixty-four percent use search engines to find out where to purchase products offline

“Understanding how consumer holiday shopping behavior changes throughout the course of a week has major implications for marketers,” said Larkins. “At the most basic level, marketers should adjust their online marketing efforts to accommodate this behavior. They should also make sure retail store managers understand this phenomenon and give them what they need to catch shoppers on their way out of the store and offer incentives to buy online Monday.”

DoubleClick Performics also recommends marketers allocate adequate search budgets to capture heavy e-commerce activity on Monday and transition throughout the week to focus on the online to offline connection as the weekend approaches. Considering “Brand + Location” keywords and leveraging the geotargeting capabilities of most search engines are just two of the ways marketers can strengthen the online to offline connection in the latter half of each week throughout the holiday season.

About DoubleClick Performics
Since 1998, DoubleClick Performics has delivered consumers to our affiliate and search engine marketing clients. Our structure provides high-level strategic planning and integrated services resulting in a deep knowledge of consumer behavior. As committed industry leaders, our innovative approach to digital performance marketing enables us to anticipate and shape the future while ensuring our clients’ marketing investments are efficient and effective.
Our world-class solutions stem from superior technology with a layer of intelligence and experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere. DoubleClick Performics is thinking forward.