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We would like to invite you to 3 upcoming webinars targeted towards retail clients and the agencies that support them -- YouTube Holiday Planning, Intro to Mobile Ads and Mobile Best Practices. These sessions are designed to help you incorporate video and mobile ad strategies into holiday campaigns and beyond.

YouTube Holiday Webinar
Thursday, November 11, 2010, 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
During this session you'll learn how to capitalize on holiday shoppers browsing video content, including customization tips for your YouTube Channel, innovative strategies for sales focused YouTube campaigns and more.
Register here

Introduction to Mobile Ads
Friday, November 12, 2010, 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Learn about the opportunity mobile presents to your business, the mobile advertising products offered by Google and how you can get started.
Register here

Mobile Best Practices
Thursday, November 18, 2010, 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Learn how to measure and optimize your mobile campaigns to increase your mobile ROI.
Register here

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team
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There is a lot of consumer excitement around new tech products this holiday season. According to our latest research, 56% of shoppers are planning to buy computer related gifts, 50% plan to purchase electronics and 13% of them plan to purchase electronics online (Google/Ipsos OTX Consumer Holiday Shopping Intentions, September 2010).

We looked at Google Insights for Search to see the query volume of a few hot products from three different tech categories: Consumer Electronics & Accessories, Computers & Accessories, and Mobile Phones & Accessories. As you'll see through rising search volumes, consumers are interested in many new electronic devices such as the Kindle, netbooks and smart phones.

Consumer Electronics & Accessories/Kindle
On this graph you see the growth of "Kindle" as a search term, relative to the Computer & Electronics category. The Kindle search term is growing much faster than the overall category and will likely be a hot product this holiday season.









Computers & Accessories
Netbooks and tablets are the hot trending products in this category, as you can see by the growth of searches for Archos 101 and the Android tablet.

Archos 101









Android tablet









Mobile Phones & Accessories
According to our latest Google/Ipsos OTX research, only 1/3 of all consumers in the US use a smartphone, so this presents a large gifting opportunity this holiday season. HTC's search volume peaked in June this year after lauching the HTC Hero, while Nokia peaked in October with the launch of Nokia N8.

HTC









Nokia









To see more of the latest holiday trends in electronics, visit our ThinkHoliday site: http://www.google.com/thinkholiday/trends.html#electronics

Posted by Anne Beuttenmüller, Google Tech Team

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Holiday researching is starting earlier and earlier. We've been surveying shoppers every 2 weeks to track progress of their holiday shopping and as of October 19:



Source: Google/Ipsos OTX Consumer Pulse Check.

The biggest takeway is that researching/shopping started even earlier than last year. By October 19, 73% of consumers had started researching/shopping vs. 59% in 2009. Purchasing remains more consistent: 51% in 2010 vs. 46% in 2009. Although retailers will see a bulk of their sales in December, consumers are beginning to make decisions about what they are going to buy, and half have already bought a holiday gift.

Source: Google/OTX Consumer Pulse Check.

And why are consumers shopping earlier? They want to know they’ll get the items they want, and beat the rush. Consumers want more time to choose, research and decide. And they believe they can get better deals if they start researching earlier.

Many retailers launched their holiday sites and promotions over the past week including Toys R'Us, Macy's and Best Buy. With Christmas just 46 days away, its time to get your holiday messaging into the marketplace!

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team
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Which is your favorite day to shop? It probably won’t surprise you that most stores see their highest traffic on Saturdays. But what do you think is the most popular day to shop online? If you said Monday, you’re wrong. Looking at daily e-commerce spend data from the past five Decembers, Tuesday is the peak shopping day online.





















Knowing when potential customers are in the hunt can help retailers manage their marketing budgets and promotion calendars. Savvy retailers are mining their online sales data to identify patterns around website purchase activity to make sure that they are top of mind when shoppers want to buy. Armed with that insight, here are some ways to make your marketing stand out.
  1. Make sure customers know you are open for business. If you know your product sells best on Fridays, boost your marketing and advertising on Fridays so shoppers can easily find you. Retailers who under-budget for their major shopping days may miss a chance to reach people who are ready to buy.
  2. Plan for the purchase cycle. Your product may sell best on Friday, but how long does the buyer think about it? Some products are impulse buys, some require heavy research over a few days. Build this buying cycle into your marketing plans. You can gradually build awareness, or blast targeted marketing messages quickly at high volume.
  3. Use customized marketing messages. When you know what customers are likely doing, you can speak to them more directly about the product, the price and what other customers are saying.
  4. Tailor special offers to drive sales. Do your customers value free shipping or in-store pickup? Do they want a discount or a special bonus for buying? Test how different promotions change buyer behavior. You can shorten the sales cycle and win more business when you know what your customer values.

Posted by Julie Lentz, Google Retail Team
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Q4. Holiday. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. We all know site traffic, store traffic and sales increase during this crazed retail rush but did you know that online also drives more visits to your physical stores during this time period?



Earlier this year at a Shop.org Innovation Summit, Best Buy stated 80% of customers that come in their stores started their product research on BestBuy.com. How many of your shoppers start on your site first?






























Looking at Insights for Search, queries for ‘store locator’ and ‘store locations’ sharply rise in November and peak in December every year. These types of searches are increasing in number yearly, and we have already seen a slight bump in store locator searches this year around Back to School.



So how can you leverage this type of search activity? According to our latest Google/Ipsos OTX consumer intentions study from September 2010, 68% of consumers are likely to take advantage of purchase incentives during this holiday season. Why not utilize a portion of the inventory on your store locator page to entice consumers to pick up their keys and immediately drive to the store by offering special deals once shoppers reach this page on your site?



Maybe it’s 10% off one full price item, or even regional or store specific offers. Perhaps in San Diego 20% off candles could be compelling, but in Charlotte 20% off rugs brings in the masses. The specials could vary based on inventory volume and slow moving merchandise or even change daily, depending on what is featured in stores or on your website. If you really wanted to make things interesting, you could add in a time sensitive component such as 30% off if used in the next 12 hours, 20% off if used in the next 24 hours or 10% off if used in the next 48 hours.



Special store locator deals could be an especially strong tactic for locations that are struggling. If a consumer is seeking a store that is currently experiencing soft sales, serve a coupon for 40% off any item just for that store location.



And don’t forget about consumers that use their mobile devices to find store locations and driving directions – offer the same types of deals on your mobile site as well.



Even if you are not able to provide store specific or product specific offers on your site, know that store location queries are sky high in Q4 and the real estate on your store location page should incentivize consumers when your brand is top of mind to immediately get off the sofa and check out what you’ve got in your stores.



Posted by Kelly Smith, Google Retail Team



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One third of consumers already have smartphones and the number is growing rapidly. Out of these, more than 50% will use their phones to compare prices this holiday season. During our “Think Holiday” webinar we asked Alex Barza, Mobile Leader for Retail, to provide recommendations on how retailers can achieve their goals this holiday season utilizing mobile.

Alex covered a number of tactics retailers can use now and in 2011, through Google’s mobile solutions:
  • Driving foot traffic in-store via location aware ads
  • Utilizing mobile offers to extend the reach of holiday promotions
  • Having an App and promoting it, through both mobile search and display
For complete details on Google's Mobile recommendations, you can view the presentation here.

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team
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Posted:





Do you know that 89% of consumers started their holiday shopping online?

Or that searches for 'coupons' peak on Saturdays?

If not, you should visit our ThinkHoliday site: www.google.com/thinkholiday where you’ll be privy to a wealth of exclusive information on consumer shopping behavior, hot products and the latest holiday insights.

We’ll be updating the site frequently as holiday approaches so bookmark it and check back often. The holidays are . . . on!

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team
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