Report provides tips for connecting with holiday shoppers

Schaumburg, Ill. As consumer confidence remains low this holiday season, marketers who understand their customers' shopping behaviors and preferences are best positioned to connect with those who are spending and drive strong holiday sales, according to a new report from Experian Marketing Service.

The report, The 2009 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, provides information on the best ways to reach consumers based on behaviors and trends. It also assesses the current marketing landscape and examines which activities are most likely to drive early and lasting holiday marketing success.

Among the findings:

• Younger adults are using coupons at higher rates than they did last year, while older adults are taking advantage of more incentive-based offers such as free product with purchase and cross-sale promotions.

• Free shipping e-mails garner the highest open and click-through rates. Shorter expiration dates on these types of offers lead to higher conversion rates.

• The three main vehicles that drove more than half of the traffic to retailers' Web sites were search, e-mail and other retailers, respectively, during the 2008 holiday season.

• Almost half of all purchases from catalogs are made during the last two calendar months of the year, with women making more purchases than men and households without children making more purchases than their counterparts.

• Over the past four years, the highest market share of Web site visits occurred on Thanksgiving Day, followed by Black Friday.

"Analyzing current trends coupled with understanding your customers' needs and behaviors is the first step to putting your company, products and services on your target customer's radar," said Matt Seeley, president of marketing services platforms division at Experian. "Actively engaging them across all channels this season will help marketers work smarter. Companies that rely on best practices and qualitative analytical insight will drive customer engagement during the 2009 holiday season and beyond."

Click here to download a free copy of The 2009 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report.