Primetime Shopping

There’s a new primetime in town. Primetime shopping.
Due to the rise in households with two working parents the average adult shops online between 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm. They come home from work, take the kids to their extra-curricular activities or hover over homework. They tuck their little darlings in to bed and head for their computers to start looking for that next purchase. Is your brick and mortar business open during those hours?

Just focusing on the primetime shopping window of 2 hours let’s do some math, shall we? Let’s say your business is open 8 hours a day, 5 times a week.

Having a website allows your business to stay open during this 2 hour peak online shopping time per night. That’s 14 hours a week, 48 hours a month. Your business is now open for business an extra 6 days per month.

Remember, we’re only discussing those 2 hours a night of primetime shopping.

Going further, you’re open an extra 72 days a year without adding even one extra staff member.

Those harried parents are online right now. Are they finding you?

Kids, Teens and Virtual Worlds

SEPTEMBER 25, 2007

It’s a virtual, virtual world after all.

The Walt Disney Company’s $350 million purchase of Club Penguin signals a new focus of attention for marketers and media companies targeting kids and teens online.

Virtual worlds are becoming more frequent destinations as the percentage of children and teens who use the Internet increases.

“For marketers trying reach kids and teens on social networking sites, there is a new game in town: virtual worlds,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Kids and Teens: Virtual Worlds Open New Universe.

“Of course, virtual worlds are not new, but the level of development activity, venture capital investment and consumer interest in virtual worlds is unprecedented,” she said.

Club Penguin is one of the fastest growing virtual worlds for young children. As of August 2007, it had 12 million registered users and 700,000 paid subscribers, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

According to eMarketer estimates, 41.5% of children ages 3 to 11 will use the Internet at least once a month in 2007. In total, 14.9 million children will go online in 2007, rising to an estimated 16.6 million in 2011.

Among teens, eMarketer estimates 76.4% will go online at least once a month in 2007, rising to 87.1% by 2011.

Overall, children and teens make up 18.2% of all US Internet users.

“eMarketer estimates that 24% of the 34.3 million child and teen Internet users in the US will use virtual worlds at least once a month this year,” Ms. Williamson said. “And by 2011, 53% of them will be going virtual.”

As more kids and teens start to use virtual worlds, their viewpoint on the Web changes, too.

“They are growing up not only with social networking but also with the ability to interact with people, shop, learn and play in a graphic environment,” Ms. Williamson said. “Flat Web pages with clickable links and banner ads may pale in comparison.”

Younger kids are getting used to a graphical representation of a social network, Jonathan Collins, executive producer of virtual worlds for MTV, said in an interview with eMarketer.

“They’re going to feel a social network that doesn’t have [that] element is missing something,” Mr. Collins said.

eMarketer expects that virtual worlds — particularly those for kids and teens — will see an increased level of interest from marketers in the next few years.

“The intense activity in virtual worlds for kids and teens is only a microcosm of the larger development work being done in virtual worlds,” says Ms. Williamson. “Many believe that the graphically rich environment of virtual worlds will transform how consumers shop, communicate and browse the Internet.”

To keep up with the changing realities of Internet marketing, please read the new eMarketer report, Kids and Teens: Virtual Worlds Open New Universe, today.

Shop Interactively, Buy Locally

More than eight in 10 US online local searchers follow up with an offline store visit, phone call or purchase, according to a comScore Networks study commissioned by TMP Directional Marketing.

One-third of all consumers said they still considered print yellow pages as their primary source of local business information.

“Offline local search, white pages and yellow pages directory advertising is a $15 billion market and fairly static,” Stuart McKelvey, CEO of TMPDM, said in a statement. “Online local search is a $1 billion market and growing.”

Six in 10 local searchers went online first.

Of those who started their local searches online, 30% used general search engines such as Yahoo! or Google, 17% used Internet yellow pages and 13% used local search sites such as Citysearch.

source: eMarketer, August 15th

Only one-third of your customers are looking for you in the yellow pages. Isn’t it exciting to know they are looking for you online and then following up by visiting your business?
Well, it might not be that exciting if you can’t be found online!

Victoria Bush, www.youronthedot.com

Back to school shoppers head for web

According to eMarketer:
“Online shopping is joining the annual back-to-school bookstore scrum for many college students.

College students and families will spend $47.3 billion during the 2007 back-to-school season, according to the National Retail Federation’s “2007 Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey,” conducted by BIGresearch.

The average total spent on back-to-college goods will be $956.93, up from $880.52 in 2006.”

“While 57.2% of students and their families plan to shop at college bookstores, many also plan to shop at a variety of retailers, including discounters, department stores and office supply stores. Nearly one-third of consumers also planned to shop online for back-to-college necessities.”

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One third of 43 billion, can you do the math?

Victoria Bush, www.youronthedot.com