It was a Merry Christmas after all. By almost all accounts, e-commerce sales were the silver lining in the ominous world of holiday shopping sales.

Nielson Net Ratings said e-commerce sales increased 24% from the year ago period. MediaMetrix said 39%, BizRate said 40% and Forrester Research said 54%. Total e-commerce online sales numbers for the year topped out at between $74 - 80 billion, about $13 million of that coming just in the 4 weeks or so from Thanksgiving through Christmas. We’d all like a piece of that, wouldn’t we?

These are all great numbers but what made online holiday sales do so well?

As more and more people go online on a daily basis, they have begun to trust e-commerce and online shopping more now than ever. They are more comfortable with it. It has come of age, lost its novelty appeal and is now part of the mainstream. This is especially true of women shoppers, who now compose approximately 60% of all online shoppers, up from 39% just 4 years ago. This is good news for all of us in the e-commerce business. It just goes to show that we can only improve from here.

Customers were lured by free shipping and other discounts. As always, consumers like a good deal. Ironically, free shipping brought lots of visitors to online stores but many consumers still opted to pay for shipping anyway, wanting faster shipping options or not meeting the minimum order criteria to qualify for free shipping. Whether it’s free shipping or otherwise, the moral of the story here is to keep things interesting for your consumers. Promotions, if done with a bit of taste or class, do draw in consumers and sales.

Now that it has hit the mainstream, consumers cited efficiency, time savings, bargain hunting and convenience as factors that led them to e-commerce sites rather than the malls. This is a no-brainer. You all sell online. Surely you are familiar with the medium. We all know this. The point, however, is that until this info trickles down to the masses and everyone is shopping online, there is plenty of room to grow.

The best news of all for e-tailers is that online sales made up a greater piece of the overall holiday shopping spending pie, further proof that e-commerce sales are becoming mainstream. It's no longer just an experiment for shoppers; it's one of their shopping channels, right along side Costco, Wal-Mart and the local mall.

Another great stat to come from this past holiday season and end of year figures is that e-commerce sales are expected to surpass catalog sales by 2005. Again, the future couldn’t look brighter to be an e-commerce merchant.

So, Christmas came and went and your holiday sales were great. Although you would have loved to be able to buy that tropical island that you've always wanted, you didn’t quite get there yet, but you’re getting closer. By almost all accounts, holiday sales were phenomenal this year, up as much as 50% from the same period a year ago.

So, how do you keep the momentum going and keep the sales rolling? There are many ways and you each know what best suits your industry but one technique that works for almost everyone is to run a post holiday blowout sale or clearance sale. We’re all seasoned offline shoppers from back in the day when there was no internet and we all know what an after Christmas sale is. We’ve all seen the commercials on TV and the local newspapers stuffed with flyers. After Christmas, everyone has gift certificates to use, newfound money they received as gifts or following an exchange of that horrendous sweater your mother-in-law gave you. Now they have pent up demand combined with the general euphoria of the holidays. They want to spend. Make yourself known. There is action to be had, it’s just a matter of getting a piece of your own.

So, run a post holiday blowout sale or clearance sale or whatever you want to call it. Then promote it everywhere, offline, online and everywhere in between. One great way to promote it is to email all of your past customers in your customer database. These are your best sources of sales. You’re sitting on that gold mine. Make sure you use it. The point is, run a sale, get the word out and sell, sell and sell some more. Good luck!

To subscribe to this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus/subscribe

To read previous versions of this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus

Copyright 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be republished in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.