Is it really time to start thinking about the holidays?  Yes, it is.  At least if you're an online retailer.  As e-consultancy points out, "Online customer service departments may be dealing with up to five times more emails in the pre-Christmas run up than at any other time of the year."

This means a potential backlog and customers could be left waiting for responses to their inquiries. In order to avoid frustrating customers (especially first-time customers), it's important for companies to invest in their online experience.  

The article offers a few reasons for online retailers to invest in technology that will help alleviate their customer service departments during the holidays:

• Cost reduction: The cost of the average customer interaction by telephone is estimated to be between 20 and 40 times more expensive that a web self-service interaction.

• Minimising burden of email by grouping and automatically diverting to most appropriate customer service staff, as well as taking pressure off contact centre staff.

• Using software to help customer get answers more quickly will pay off in terms of customer loyalty.

• Good online customer service can produce leads and opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

As online sales growth rates begin to level off, retailers are turning to new tactics to help upsell existing customers, because while growth rates may be slowing, the life-time value of customers is still increasing.  A report this month by Forrester Research showed about 10 percent of online shoppers had spent $500 or more during the past three months. According to Forrester, these frequent shoppers have an average household income of $91,296.

However, as one expert tells the Washington Post, increasing upsell opportunities for these affluent buyers  is only half the battle.

 "Getting them to spend more on the Web is important, but Erika Serow, a partner at management consulting firm Bain & Co., said online retailers also need to focus on convenience, easy navigation and checkout, and providing detailed information about merchandise. By contrast, new shoppers are most concerned that their transactions are secure."

For both new and existing customers, the key to keeping their mindshare is to create a service experience that is stressless and without obstacles. "You don't need to fancy up the Web experience," Serow said. "You just need to make sure it is as consistent and pleasant as the in-store experience."

Interesting piece in Sunday's New York Times.  As women gain more of share of household income and control major spending decisions, retailers are beginning to take notice and cater to them with unique services and offerings. 

According to the article, " Retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Sears, Best Buy and others recognize that women are running their households like purchasing managers. Some are “identifying stores that have more female shoppers and offering additional services,” including sales support, customized signs and special product displays, said Dana L. Telsey, who runs her own independent research firm. Travel companies, automakers, and other companies, meanwhile, have had to cater to the tastes of women who have careers outside the home and are pursuing hobbies and other pricey interests. The phenomenon is readily apparent on the Internet, where Web sites built around the needs and interests of such groups as female homeowners and car buyers have gained steady traction."

Even online retailers are beginning to take a new approach when it comes to marketing to both male and female shoppers.   "For its part, Best Buy is more than willing to show them the way. Online, Best Buy has added “click to call,” so that a shopper can ask a representative to call her back at a time she requests to help with buying decisions. In the stores, it has made the aisles cleaner and wider and added shopping bags as an alternative to carts."

John Federman's article "Driving Direct Leads: Are you doing all you can to boost local sales?" appears in this month's Franchise Update.  The article highlights some strategies for generating leads for local franchises through national marketing campaigns by using technology like click to call.

According to the article, " The nature of many franchise businesses makes it unlikely that consumers will purchase something sight-unseen and without engaging in a one-on-one dialog. If that were the case, many franchises would not be franchises in the first place-they would exist in a few central locations and ship their products from there. Jenny Craig and DaimlerChrysler both have found innovative ways to drive sales directly from their online channels to local businesses, using an emerging technology called "click to call." Click to call allows companies to proactively engage customers by offering web browsers a chance to speak to a customer service representative instantly through either their PC or phone, based on the browser's online behavior. "
 

From MarketingVOX:

"Of the total $32.5 billion spent on the CE products tracked in the study, online research - including search engines, manufacturers' and retail websites and shopping engines - influenced 77 percent, or $25.1 billion. Some 73 percent of consumers said comparing prices of a product found in different stores is easy to do online, and 64 percent said they prefer online because of the wider variety of products available for research; 45 percent of those who research online and purchase offline use a search engine during the information-gathering process...Though the internet plays a powerful research role, print media, family and friends, retail displays and other traditional sources also aid CE purchasers; on average, consumers use six different sources to guide their CE purchase decision."