Long gone are the days when consumers merely crawled through newspaper ads and trekked out to brick and mortar stores. Through the power of the web, the smartphone and the tablet, they have more options than ever.
So far this holiday season, consumers have spent $27.5 billion online, a 12% increase over last year, compared with overall retail growth, which grew just 3 to 4%. And according to the National Retail Federation, e-commerce sales on Black Friday jumped 15% to make up 34% of all shopping that day.
One of the key reasons is definitely free shipping. Almost 55% of the transactions are now free.
Clearly, the days where you have to buy so much before you get to enjoy free shipping, are long gone. They will never be back.
Now for companies who are trying to establish a competitive edge against the millions of companies online, it is imperative for them to offer free-shipping.
By giving people something for free, it will then attract them to your business. However, they had better start soon because once everyone starts to offer free shipping, then its no longer as exclusive as it sounds. It becomes taken for granted and this competitive edge will be obliterated for sure.
The next thing after free will be how fast is the shipping period and whether it is delivered on time.
Then again, it is now up to the merchants and businesses to revamp their websites to give it a nice feel. The shopping experience online, to make it come alive that is. That is probably something that will keep the consumers coming back.
Just to see what has changed on the website like how they always visit shops that change all the time.
They demand freshness and innovation. And on the Internet, you can get all the innovations you can possibly get. So, let the battle begins.
The one that will bring across the best experience wins.
Credits -cnn, -sitesketch
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