Savvy online shoppers know they don’t have to wait for the Thanksgiving turkey to become a turkey sandwich to find a good deal.
But online retailers aren’t just hoping to snag shoppers with discounts. They also hope to make connections and make loyal customers out of normally disconnected shoppers.
Local retailers are increasingly focusing on their websites and online offerings, working to ensure that Internet shoppers have the same experience they would in the stores — just without the long lines they might have seen on Black Friday, the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving that kicks off the holiday season.
Shoppers who buy online from the Cook’s Warehouse will get a thank-you note along with the knife set or cookie sheets they ordered.
“We treat it the same way,” CEO Mary Moore said of the online store. “We try to infuse some warmth.”
The Monday after Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday, is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, but Internet buying continues to grow from one year to the next, regardless of the season.
“People are becoming more accustomed to buying online,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer for IBM Smarter Commerce. “It’s a good place to find deals.”
Fab’rik CEO Dana Spinola would rather see her shoppers in person, but since she didn’t plan on hitting the stores on Black Friday, she understands why some shoppers might not have wanted to.
Spinola, who has 15 stores in six states, said she wants online shoppers to feel the same connection to Fab’rik that they would if they came in the front door. So online buyers get a $5 Starbucks gift card with their purchase to mimic the cups of coffee shoppers in the stores receive. The across-the-board 30 percent off deal is the same online as in-store shoppers saw on Black Friday.
Online sales are only 15 percent of Fab’rik’s business, but Spinola said many people go to the site after first visiting the store. It helps make customers more loyal, she said.
“I’m really big into the experience, and it’s kind of hard to transfer to online,” she said. “I just want to see those people’s faces, but everyone can’t get into Fab’rik.”
Still, about 60 percent of the chain’s online shoppers live close to a store, Spinola said.
The Cook’s Warehouse has four metro Atlanta locations, but Moore said she treats online retail like a separate store. By having a robust Internet presence, Moore said, she can reach more people who aren’t within driving distance.
In fact, 80 percent of the Atlanta-based Cook’s Warehouse’s online customers come from outside Georgia.
“It’s a much bigger market,” Moore said. “It really opens up the possibilities.”
While overall retail sales are up slightly, Squire said online purchases have risen between 15 percent and 20 percent over last year. Cyber Monday sales increased 19 percent in 2010 from 2009, and Squire said he expects double-digit growth again this year.
Growth of shopping on mobile devices is expected to be particularly pronounced, as people become more comfortable making purchases away from their computers. Squire said this year 15 percent of online sales are expected to come from mobile devices; last year, it was 4.5 percent.
Squire said Cyber Monday is one of the year’s busiest online shopping days, and in 2010 volume was 31 percent higher than online shopping on Black Friday. But Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst for NPD Group, said individual shopping days become less important as more people are able to buy things anywhere and any time.
“It’s the breaking of traditions,” he said.
Cohen said while Cyber Monday is a busy shopping day, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a busy buying day. And as online deals pop up throughout the week of Thanksgiving, Cohen said the importance of that day is becoming further diluted.
Still, he said, the importance of online sales cannot be discounted.
Squire said even browsing can be rewarding for online retailers, as shoppers discover stores for the first time, then come back later.
That has been the case for KooKoo Bear Baby & Kids, president Tara Mediate said.
She said she treats Cyber Monday as “one of the most important days of the year. It’s a big day for us on the Web.”
In part, Mediate said, that is because many shoppers looking for online deals will find the site for the first time on Cyber Monday and return later to make purchases.
She expects this year’s holiday season — including Cyber Monday — will be better than last, as shoppers are in a better frame of mind about their personal finances.
KooKoo Bear Baby & Kids started out as a Web and catalog retailer, but the addition of two stores in Roswell and Norcross and closing of the mail-order catalog has driven some business to the retail locations, and away from the website, Mediate said.
Mediate said she has put a lot of effort into the store’s online presence, and updates the site on a weekly basis to keep it fresh. People come online for information and to buy, she said. On Cyber Monday, she expects to offer most items on the site at 20 percent off.
Web traffic doubles on Cyber Monday, Mediate said. While she said some December days rival the Monday after Thanksgiving for the number of hits, it is still one of the busiest.
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