Growth in Holiday Spend? Where?
According to comScore, the fastest growing online category in the 2008 holiday season was sports and fitness. This category grew 18 percent compared to 2007 as consumers were more inclined to purchase higher priced fitness machines online instead of offline.

Sports and Fitness was followed by Video Games (14 Percent Growth Year over Year) and Apparel & Accessories. All other categories unfortunately saw a drop in growth due to consumers curbing their purchasing due to the poorer economic conditions.

Who is Spending More?
Growth in online spending occurred in households with income over $100,000 (7% Growth), while all other income segments showed declines in online spending. $50,000-$99,999 Household Income Consumers showed a -8% Growth Rate, while those under $50,000 showed a -13% Growth Rate in Spend.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM

Search Engine Marketing
For those looking to really capitalize on the holiday season, it is very important to start shoring up a plan weeks in advance. Q4 Holidays brings a special time in the online world where the average user has a different mindset and the volume (for retail) lifts dramatically. It is very important to create specialized campaigns targeting the consumer and their specific needs. Here at LeadQual we have a number of clients from different industries that see different seasonal changes during the Holiday season. We are already starting to plan for the new holiday season. Below is a quick checklist of how you too can prepare your Search Engine Marketing for the Holidays:
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Holiday spending has been weakest in 17 years but TNS Retail Foward forecasts a 1.5% growth for the holiday Q4 in key retail areas. Online sales is expected to grow 9% to $42.5 billion during the holiday seasons compared to 19% in 2007.

Apparel retailers are expected to decline in 1.3%. Homegoods channels and Furniture/ home furnishing stores are expected to decline by 1%. Consumer electronic stores on the other hand is expected to grow at 4% partially helped by consumer conversion to digital TV signals. Mass retailers are also expected to show a 5.6% growth as higher food prices are expected to shift consumers to focus on value.

Holiday Shopping
Mediamark (MRI) is expecting 35% of adults (62.3 million) will begain holiday shopping before Thanksgiving while another 35.8% is expected to shopt between Thanksgiving and Dec 15th. 25.6% (45.3 Million) is expected to shopt from December 16 to December 23rd.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM