Every year around this time there are a deluge of studies and reports about the biggest shopping days for Christmas. The correct, big shopping dates are key for affiliates to maximize their revenue potential this time of year.
You hear a lot of jibber jabber about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but are these really the gargantuan shopping days on the Internet?
Not so, according to a report from Internet News. On the contrary, while Cyber Monday is expected to see the highest traffic of the season, CoreMetrics predicts sales on the following Monday (December 4th) will be 19 percent higher than Cyber Monday.
That stat is based largely on data from last year when sales on the second Monday after Thanksgiving were up to 22 percent higher than Cyber Monday.
Further, a new study by MasterCard Worldwide claims that neither Black Friday nor Cyber Monday ranks within the Top 5 busiest shopping days.
In fact, the MasterCard study found an increasing number of consumers are putting off the bulk of their Christmas shopping until the final week, and predicts that Dec. 23 will be the busiest shopping day of the year.
Two words: gift cards. Feature them on your site(s), drop a newsletter about them on December 23, do whatever you need to do to make them easy to buy through you.
By the way – in my inbox this morning: LinkShare has a page dedicated to holiday promotions and Amazon affiliates are now eligible to earn referral fees on Amazon.com Gift Certificates through December 31, 2006.
The great news: CoreMetrics is predicting that the 2006 overall holiday retail sales will increase 16 percent over last year’s holiday season.
Pass the eggnog!