As today's shoppers become more discriminating about their interactions online, the stakes are being raised for retailers to provide a consistently positive, more sophisticated experience. According to the 150 retailers surveyed for the second part of The State of Retailing Online 2007, the 10th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc., top priorities include fixing Web site design and performance issues, improving the efficiency of online marketing, and enhancing cross-channel integration. The report was released today at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas.

"Today's online shopper is extremely Web-savvy and expects more than ever, forcing retailers to raise the stakes," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "Companies are investing in new features that will keep customers coming back, and homepages everywhere are getting a major facelift."

Focusing On The Basics
Fixing product detail pages will top retailers' Web site to-do lists for the next 12 months. According to the survey, 88 percent of retailers plan to focus on improving content presented on product detail pages, with 80 percent adding alternative images, 72 percent incorporating lifestyle photography, and 63 percent integrating customer ratings and reviews. Retailers are also focusing on their homepages, integrating top sellers and "what's new" sections, and making their Web sites more sophisticated, with dropdown menus and rollover lists in navigational areas. To differentiate themselves from competitors, online retailers are also making customer service a priority, with 33 percent of companies planning to invest more in live chat and 53 percent planning to enhance their guest checkout process within the next year.

"It's encouraging to see more retailers planning to integrate customer feedback loops into their sales processes," said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research senior analyst and lead author of the report. "Many retailers have been relying on site analytics data, which is strong at reflecting paths-to-purchase but typically weak at highlighting vulnerabilities or opportunities for improvement."

Where Marketing Dollars Go
In 2006, online retailers continued to allocate the majority (51 percent) of their marketing dollars toward online customer acquisition tactics and an additional 24 percent to online customer retention programs. Paid search continued to be the most effective marketing tactic for customer acquisition, and email marketing retained its position as the most effective — and budget-friendly — tool for customer retention. According to the survey, retailers find that emails about new products are more successful than simple transactional and sale messages. Seventy-three percent of retailers email customers about new products, and 51 percent rated the method as very effective. While Web 2.0 and Social Computing continue to receive a great deal of attention among senior marketing executives, the survey results indicated that these tools are very much in their infancy as marketing tools for retailers.

Aligning Online And Offline Channels
Retailers understand the value of operating in multiple channels. Survey respondents said that 43 percent of catalog customers have also purchased from their online store and that 35 percent of online customers have also purchased from their bricks-and-mortar store. Online retailers reported that in 2006, they dedicated on average 18 percent of their marketing spend to cross-channel sales, up from 13 percent in 2005. Typically, such tactics included direct mail initiatives such as catalogs and email programs to drive customers to local stores. However, more retailers are also leveraging direct print mail as a way to increase online sales. According to the study, 66 percent of retailers measure the success of a catalog by how it increases Web sales.

"The perception that catalogs are a dying breed could not be further from the truth," said Silverman. "For online retailers, catalogs are an incredibly important tool for acquiring new customers and providing current customers with their first look at new products. Retailers understand that many consumers get a catalog in the mail, then buy the item online."

The State of Retailing Online 2007 is currently available to Shop.org members and can also be purchased directly at http://www.shop.org/soro07. Discount pricing is available for Forrester RoleView clients and members of the National Retail Federation.


About Forrester Research
Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent technology and market research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. For more than 24 years, Forrester has been making leaders successful every day through its proprietary research, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

About Shop.org
Shop.org is the network for retailers online. Its 600 members include the 10 largest retailers in the US and 70 percent of the Internet Retailer Top 100 E-Retailers. It's where the best retail minds come together to gain the insight, knowledge, and intelligence to make smarter, more informed decisions in the evolving world of the Internet and multichannel retailing. Founded in 1996, Shop.org became a division of the National Retail Federation in January 2001. Shop.org programs and activities include benchmarking research, events and networking communities.