With the festive season starting and consumers all set to ring in the New Year within the comfort zone of the familiar ambience either the office or the home. Good news for e-tailers who hear the jingle on their cash registers as they expect an increase in their revenues by over 50% and the overall traffic by over 75%. There has been a huge increase in consumer confidence when it comes to online shopping. And, experts believe, online shopping will continue to grow as consumers opt to avoid crowded shopping centres, parking problems and become more and more educated in how to use retail outlets online, safely and securely. It is vitally important, however, that the retailer takes all the steps necessary to ensure a secure online shopping environment. E-commerce is booming and the new found confidence in online shopping it is clear with consumers of all ages and backgrounds now using the internet to shop.
Most of the websites are wearing the ‘Christmas look’ with a Santa Claus, a snowman, ginger bread man, with snowflakes, Christmas trees, Mistletoe and Bells. Fabmall.com has designed a special store. This store retails Wines, Plum Cakes, Christmas Cakes, Christmas Flowers, Christmas Trees, Hampers, Special Christmas books, music and movies; Santa carvings, scented candles, gift hampers and more. While Cbazaar.com has introduced on the current fashion trends about 300 new designs including saris, salwar suits, tunics, bridal clothing and fashion jewelry.
K Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer, Fabmall.com* says, “We have launched a digital camera store to coincide with the New Year. This store has all leading camera brands like Canon, Casio, Kodak, Sony etc and almost all the models have discounts. Some cameras have discounts up to 43% till the New Year. There are also some promotions running especially on winter wear and books.”
Service also seems to be a key factor to woo consumers online. Rajesh Nahar - Operations & Support, Chennaibazaar.com, says, Chennaibazaar.com for this Christmas Season is offering gifts delivery service by Santa Claus personally on Christmas Eve. This service is available only for deliveries in Chennai. For New Year we have midnight surprise where we offer delivery on New Year Eve.”
Rahul Sethi, Senior Manager - E Retailing, Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, says, “For the festive season we have launched a new property called 'half off' where we are offering 50% discount on MRP on select products. The products change every week.”
On the other hand giants are busy innovating new ideas to keep the consumers online. This year, there is another way for children to share their Christmas wish lists with Santa Claus. Using Windows Live Messenger, parents can spend time with their kids chatting in real-time with Santa online.
Users will need to add Santa’s address, Northpole@live.com, to their Windows Live Messenger contact list and instantly open a conversation window to communicate with Saint Nick. Kids will enjoy immediate responses from the jolly big man himself through an interactive online chat, and they can even visit Santa’s page on Windows Live Spaces at www.santaonspaces.spaces.live.com.
Filling Santa in on Christmas wishes and asking all about how the elves are doing or what’s new at the North Pole, are a few of the things children can talk to Santa about. Santa can even tell children where they stand on his list: naughty or nice. Starting Christmas Eve morning, children can check in with Santa through Windows Live Messenger to follow his journey around the world.
