4 Holiday E-commerce Stats You Need to Know (And What You Can Do About Them)

I mentioned the 6 questions your site has to get right now that it’s all e-commerce the other day. Now, just in time for the holidays, E-consultancy highlights a number of e-commerce infographics, detailing all sorts of fun stuff about e-commerce this holiday season. The overlap is pretty interesting.

Here are four items I found most noteworthy:

1. Retailers often fail to align email and mobile. According to the Cleverbridge infographic, “1 in 3 e-commerce emails link to a landing page not optimized for mobile.” Um.. seriously? I’ve looked at typical e-commerce errors before, but this one’s just silly.
2. Many companies also fail to test. Over 20% of the companies profiled have no online testing strategy. If they did, maybe they’d realize their email landing pages don’t work on mobile. The sad part is it isn’t hard to start a testing program and the benefits are huge.
3. Mobile commerce continues to grow. Ignition One data suggests mobile commerce will grow 16% year on year. Or roughly the same amount as e-commerce (projected at 15%). Why? Probably because they’re the same thing.
4. As does e-commerce overall, with almost $62 billion on online sales. All the different projections suggest solid growth again this year. It’s a pity none of them look at the size of web-influenced commerce (which I peg at roughly $200-$300 billion during the same period based on likely share of National Retail Federation forecasts). But Sparked must see a much bigger number as they project $34 billion in mobile spend alone. Still, no matter whose numbers you like, e-commerce will be big. Again.

Anyway, the whole series is worth checking out, featuring a host of fun facts. But, in any case, the key takeaways seem to suggest that e-commerce has plenty of room to grow and that the best ways for your business to benefit include:

• Focusing on your customers’ needs. (more here).
• Aligning mobile and e-commerce.
• Testing, testing, and testing again.

And, if you’re interested in learning more about the future of e-comm
erce and marketing via the social, local, mobile web, register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of the social, local, mobile web and what it means for your business, including:

• 4 Fundamental Truths About the Future of E-commerce
• And 4 E-commerce Changes Worth Watching
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Warning: Mobile Drives Booking Costs Up and 4 Ways to Prevent It (Travel Tuesday)
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• 3 Key Trends for 2013