Retailers Plan to Convert Online Browsers into Well-Informed Buyers for the 2005 Holiday Season WebCollage Retailers See an 80% Jump in Weekly Web Site Traffic During Thanksgiving Week; General Retailers See a 20% Increase in Annual Web Site Traffic
Thursday, 22 December 2005
With a 20% year-over-year increase in web site visits during Thanksgiving weekend, retailers are looking forward to a prosperous 2005 holiday season. Their challenge is to quickly convert browsers into buyers by providing a wide range of product information that is easy to access and understand.
The WebCollage solution fulfills this need because it captures a manufacturer's existing product marketing materials and syndicates this content to various online channel partners. Consumers find that the increased access to information makes them more ready to purchase.
According to Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service, an index of 100 leading online retailers showed an "18.8% growth in visits on Thanksgiving Day 2005 versus Thanksgiving Day 2004, and a 20.9% increase in visits on Black Friday 2005 versus the same time last year." Retailers consider this data to be indicative of both online and offline 2005 holiday sales. Therefore they are very encouraged by these trends and are committed to utilizing solutions which educate and deliver well-informed consumers who are more prepared to buy.
It is commonly accepted among retailers that they cannot be credible national suppliers without a robust website, which is why more and more of them are turning to WebCollage to provide them with quality online content.
With its patented solution, WebCollage provides retailers with crisply presented, compelling and extensive product information that is both simple to access and easy to implement. Branding, content and product data are automatically leveraged from a manufacturer's website to its retailers' websites, effectively utilizing the manufacturer's resources. Additionally, the WebCollage solution is free to the retailer and requires only one line of HTML code on each relevant web site page.
As WebCollage reviews web site traffic reports from key retailers during the month of November, it finds that its retailers are seeing an approximate 80% increase in visitors, page views, and sessions from the week before Thanksgiving to the week of Thanksgiving. And with retailers making a stronger merchandising effort to reflect the most current and accurate product information, it is expected that the improved content will more easily transform web site visitors into retail customers.
A recently commissioned report from the e-tailing group, inc., entitled "The 97% Unconverted Factor," reveals in-depth research proving that information seekers who are provided with a comprehensive content experience, will eventually convert online, via a call center, or through a store visit.
And if the goal of any savvy merchant is to convert customers to buyers, with an average 2-3% of retail site visitors actually converting, that means there is a 97% shopper group population who browse a prime segment for merchants to address and optimize. These information seekers represent WebCollage's target audience.
"The driver behind WebCollage's success is that we've created a technology and business platform which builds on manufacturers' and retailers' existing relationships and helps them optimize their collaboration of online selling and marketing," says Eli Singer, CEO and Co-Founder of WebCollage. "Manufacturers are able to communicate their product information to consumers who research retailer sites, while further utilizing their content investments. Retailers benefit from enhanced merchandising capabilities, and the ability to serve customers researching their product decision, while reducing content development costs. Consumers benefit from having more varied information at their fingertips, through enhanced product marketing at their trusted retailer's site." The end result is a richer, more interactive online merchandising experience, which typically results in increased sales and higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.