ShopLocal Sees 16% Increase in Use of Internet for Shopping Before Black Friday Despite Economic Headwinds
CHICAGO, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- ShopLocal(TM), the leader in
multi-channel shopping services, is reporting a 16 percent rise in traffic to
top retailers' online circular sites during Thanksgiving week as consumers
prepared for their Black Friday shopping expeditions.
Consumers have cut their overall spending during the last two months as
recession fears have grown. They have consistently expressed plans to spend
less on holiday gifts, but retailers still attracted plenty of attention with
extensive online marketing of their record-setting array of Black Friday
deals.
Retailers expanded their Black Friday promotions by 21 percent, and began
to display the promotions to consumers online as early as Sunday. The strategy
proved fruitful, particularly for Department Stores and Mass Merchandisers,
which saw traffic to their circular sites rise more than 30 percent compared
to last year.
Consumer activity on the circular sites peaked on Wednesday at 9 a.m.,
then again on Thursday at 9 p.m. as consumers solidified their shopping plans
for Friday. The Thursday night peak set an all-time record for circular site
activity with just under 11 million page views in a single hour, surpassing
the previous record which was also set at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
"We've seen continued growth in the use of the Internet by savvy consumers
who use it to save themselves time and money by pre-planning their visits to
local stores," said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. "Especially in tough
times like these, shoppers are mindful that online research can help them to
stretch their budgets farther. That's why online research and multi-channel
advertising continue to grow every year. Consumers took advantage of a longer
preview of the holiday shopping season and increased visibility into Black
Friday deals, as retailers announced promotions earlier than ever, hoping to
pull shoppers into their stores," added Sharma.
While 51 percent of consumers plan on spending less during this holiday
season, they are now finding themselves tempted by great Black Friday deals in
some of the hottest categories, including name-brand laptops, HDTVs, and GPS
systems. Overall, electronics and deep discounts on apparel received the most
attention from consumers during the run-up to Black Friday, while deals on
iPods received less attention than in the past. Notably absent from the deals
that retailers offered are two of this year's hottest products, the Wii Fit
system and Elmo Live.
About ShopLocal
ShopLocal, the leader in multi-channel shopping and advertising services,
offers a complete suite of innovative solutions that connect advertisers and
consumers -- online and in-store. ShopLocal's industry-leading SmartProduct
business solutions (SmartCircular, SmartMedia, SmartDelivery and SmartCatalog)
enable more than one hundred of the nation's top retailers, including Target,
Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS, Albertsons and Sears, to deliver highly
interactive, targeted and localized promotions to shoppers via the Internet,
mobile phones and any other digital environment. With www.ShopLocal.com, the
Company's consumer site, users can find millions of products and up-to-date
weekly sales, deals, and coupons for consumer electronics, apparel, home and
garden, groceries and more. For more information about ShopLocal, visit
http://www.aboutshoplocal.com.
