Survey: Online retailers focus on customer-facing services for holiday

King of Prussia, Pa. – Online retailers are prioritizing immediate investments in customer-facing tactics such as price, marketing and customer service over strategic infrastructure for the 2014 holiday season. According to the 2014 Holiday Retail Audit, a U.S. survey of more than 1,000 ecommerce and marketing professionals from retailers with revenues of $5 million to $250 million conducted by EBay Enterprise, retailers identified a renewed focus in marketing efforts.



Survey results show that retailers have been investing in tools with greater data capture and analytical capabilities, including social media (29%), email promotions (22%) and search engine optimization (12%). These investments also help retailers feel better prepared to capture in-store consumer data (87%).



Large retailers reported heightened concern around data security at their company (65%), while 77% have not experienced a security breach to date.



Although respondents revealed mobile commerce as their top competitive weakness and the area of infrastructure in which they are least confident, 68% did not express plans for new or continued investments in mobile infrastructure for holiday 2014. One in three online retailers cited mobile commerce as an investment priority for holiday 2014, ranking ninth, signaling a lack of urgency in solidifying a long-term mobile infrastructure and strategy despite mobile commerce continuing to be the fastest growing segment of ecommerce.



Fifty-one percent of retailers viewed Amazon as a direct competitor heading into the 2014 holiday season, citing Amazon having a perceived competitive edge in mobile commerce (60%), inventory (56%), shipping (54%) and returns (44%).



While 45% of large online retailers detailed plans to invest in global expansion for holiday 2014, the investment priorities contradicted market opportunity. This study revealed the top markets for global ecommerce expansion were Canada (23%), followed by the U.K. (16%), China (15%), Australia (7%) and Mexico (5%), respectively.



Large online retailers cited a lack of reliable local partners (33%), diminished market demand (32%) and hampered inventory capabilities (31%) as top barriers for pursuing new global opportunities. Although Canada provides easy entry into global expansion, the market opportunity globally is immense and retailers have options to help them take that first step.



“The 2014 Holiday Retail Audit underlined the short-term focus retailers have on investing in tools that allow them to compete with their peers,” said Steve Denton, VP marketing solutions. “Nimble retailers need to be laser focused on consumer data as they head into executing holiday strategy in order to map investments back to ROI while maintaining strong margins. There is still time to implement display, retargeting, attribution and social solutions capable of ensuring that a retailer’s brand message reaches new and lost prospects with commitment to the consumer’s privacy.”