Viral Marketing, Incentives Drove Holiday Spending
Retailers got in touch with their inner techies in an attempt to reach the two-thirds of adults who intended to do their holiday shopping online this year. According to the 2006 eHoliday Mood Survey conducted by BizRate for Shopzilla and Shop.org, 41.6% of retailers intended to use blogs or RSS feeds as part of their holiday marketing mix, while 79.5% planned to use viral marketing at social networking sites.
Once they lured shoppers to their sites, an increasing number of online retailers were willing to offer free and discounted shipping in order to "seal the deal." Two years ago, only 64% of online retailers offered shipping incentives, while this year 83% used shipping-based promotions.
