• by December 4, 2000

The 1999 holiday season marked the first time that online retailing played a noticeable part in the shopping season. And with 23% more users online this season and ad activity at four times what it was last year, retailers are sure to do well in 2000. At least that's what AdRelevance is predicting in their latest report... with a word of caution.

A quick look back at 1999 online advertising trends shows that online retailers didn't follow the traditional mall 'start early' marketing strategy. You'd think they'd learn from their mistakes this year and start advertising earlier.

But when comparing the growth of ad impressions in 1999 to this year it's evident that with the exception of the second week in October, advertisers are off to a slower start than they were last year. Only in the second week of November does it appear that retail advertising expenditures are starting to show some significant gains.

With 3.5 times more retail companies advertising online this year it is puzzling to see additional signs of slow retail growth. Per-company online retail advertising has dipped with median impressions per retailer down 82% in October, AdRelevance has found. Even the average number of ads created per retailer is down 16% along with the number of holiday- themed ads, which in October were less than half of what they were last year.

AdRelevance says starting early provides sites with an opportunity to capitalize on the early shopper. Also, last year, late shipments were an issue for many shoppers and using an advertising strategy to promote early shopping could have helped address last year's shipping dilemma.