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“It's the most wonderful time of the year. / With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you. / Be of good cheer, / It's the most wonderful time of the year.”
Down about the economy, leave your worries behind and shop online! If you’re an avid online shopper, chances are your inbox is being bombarded by holiday deals from major companies on an almost daily basis.
Deals are definitely going well beyond free shipping to include markdowns of 25 percent or more. Check out these deals:
- Children's retailers One Step Ahead and Leaps and Bounds are offering 40 percent off already marked down toys and winter clothing, which means shoppers can save as much as 80 percent some items on Monday.
- Red Envelope is emailing some of its customers a 25-percent-off offer that excludes its Bose products, but does not require a minimum purchase.
- Flowers more your style? 1-800-Flowers.com is offering 30 red and white tulips with a free vase and chocolates for $29.99.
- Gap is offering $20 off and free shipping for purchases of $100 or more. This includes items that already have seen discounts of 40 percent off.
Several retailers, including Kohl's and Toys R Us, are doing Christmas countdown sales, with new deals offered each day.
According to ComScore, $19.44 billion has been spent online this holiday season through Dec. 12. Sales in the early days of the season, the 12 days beginning with Dec. 1, were up 3 percent compared with the year-ago. But then sales from Dec. 8 through Dec. 12, fell 1 percent, although Dec. 9 was the highest online spending day on record.
One factor that could spoil this trend is a big push by online retailers to promote Dec. 18 as a free shipping shopping day.
The biggest winners in terms of customers visiting their Web sites have been Amazon.com, Wal-Mart and Apple ( News - Alert), ComScore said. (Although they can't say whether the higher traffic equals higher sales.)
"To perform well, you either have to offer great prices, as in Wal-Mart's case,” Lipsman said. "Have the hot product, which Apple does, or in Amazon's case, be a leader in terms of execution."
Jessica Kostek is a channel editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Jessica’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek
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