• by Seana Mulcahy , November 13, 2006

By now most of you know I'm from the East Coast. Although we've had a bout of unseasonably warm weather for this time of year, it's beginning to look a lot like... Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza.

Had the regretful task of returning some things at the mall this weekend. Not only was it packed (although it was 60 degrees out), it was transformed. Just abut every aisle, end cap and storefront was clad in glowing strands of lights, glitter, garland and the like. This isn't right. It's not even Thanksgiving.

I guess it says a lot about our economy. Brick-and-mortar retailers are pushing and promoting their wares hard. Who could blame them after the real estate market being at a 30-year low, and the price of gas being stratospheric for months prior to the elections last week.

But what about e-tailers, you ask? Well, fortunately when you land on a major site like Wal-Mart or Amazon, you don't hear "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" piping through. It remains a much more peaceful environment than schlepping through the likes of the dreaded suburban mall. To no one's surprise, the e-tail world is poised in a full-court press.

Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. You know what that is, right? Just in case you don't, according to Wikipedia: "BlackFriday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year... when retailers traditionally get back 'in the black' after operating 'in the red' for the previous months."

Come on, you know you have friends or family members that rest after the Thanksgiving hoopla. They organize, map out their routes and head out as early as midnight to get special offers that are usually only valid until 6 a.m. the following day. I hate to admit it, but last year I got dragged out to a super Wal-Mart with my friend who wanted to buy flat screen LCD TV monitors. See, she, as well as the hundred of people in line, went online and searched and scoured for official ads as well as leaks to Black Friday sales.

How was it being there last year? Well I was tired, froze my ass off in zero-degree weather, got even more tired from waiting in line to get in the store, was appalled by the aggression and sometimes brute force of the determined shoppers... you get the drift.

It made me realize that not all purchases have to be made online. Let me take a step back. E-tailers aim for the premier opportunities to have their products promoted with great visibility. They craft strategies and media plans to offer a full-circle solution: Target audience sees swanky creative on a variety of sites; compelling copy takes user to slickly designed e-tailer's Web site; simple, easy navigation leads user to a purchase page where, once again, it is simple and easy to enter in billing and shipping information; privacy policy is clearly stated so user knows the site is secure; and, as an added bonus, e-tailer offers free shipping.

Sounds like a plan, doesn't it? Well lucky for us that analysts are predicting record sales this year. In its "US Online Holiday Retail Forecast: 2006," JupiterResearch predicts a record 114 million users shopping online this holiday season, and a year-over-year increased online holiday spend of 18 percent to $32 billion.

Sometimes--well, quite often, the holiday Web shopping experience isn't the most favorable route. Users complain of slow load times, time-outs, broken links (eek!), difficult ordering pages, unclear return policies... the list goes on. We need to pay attention to what users are saying and fix the problems ASAP.

As we are a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, take a look around at brick-and-mortar and click-and-mortar retailers. Maybe you are one. Or maybe you are an agency that represents one. If so, how are you pulling out all the stops this year to lure users to shop, shop, shop? Please post to the Spin blog. I'd rather be here than at the mall!