ChoiceStream

Consumers worldwide surveyed for Synovate’s "IN:FACT global study on media and advertising" are definitely not very ad-friendly. Two-thirds thought there were too many ads on TV, and 39% said the same of the Internet. But eMarketer postulates that behavioral targeting may be a positive way to help avoid consumer ad fatigue. When Synovate surveyed consumers worldwide about targeted television and Internet advertisements, explaining that behavioral targeting would increase ad relevance, 42% of those polled responded positively. Read the full article at eMarketer

With a peak online shopping day expected on December 7, a study commissioned by London-based Interactive Media in Retail Group is projecting that most U.K. shoppers will do more than half of their holiday shopping online this year. The study projects consumers will spend £350 million (US$580 million) on the 7th (today). The study also found 93% of shoppers plan to shop online for gifts this holiday season, with nearly three-quarters of them conducting at least half of their total shopping online.Read the full article at Internet Retailer

2009 has been a breakthrough year for mobile commerce, and new research suggests the year will go out with a bang. Nearly one in five consumers expect to use their mobile phones to assist them with holiday shopping, according to a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. consumers by Deloitte LLC. 55% of those consumers plan to find store locations, 45% research prices, 40% find product information, 32% get discounts and coupons, and 31% read reviews. And one in four shoppers expect to make a purchase this holiday season with a mobile phone. Meanwhile, 17% of consumers plan to use social media during their holiday shopping.Read the full article at Internet Retailer

Tech entrepreneur Sramana Mitra has set about defining Web 3.0 noting "Web 3.0 results from combining content, commerce, community and context, with personalization and vertical search." According to Mitra, "when you fuse a specific user with genuine context, you wind up with truly personalized service." Mitra gives examples of companies that are succeeding in satisfying her vision of the Web of the future including Blinds.com and SheetMusicPlus.com. Mitra concludes that "E-commerce is here to stay, and Web 3.0 will be online merchants’ next frontier to conquer!"Read the full article

As email has become the direct marketing workhorse of the holiday shopping season, marketers place increasing pressure to avoid colossal blunders that will compromise their retail success. This story from 1to1Media details the 5 “Biggest” holiday e-mail mistakes, specifically mentioning that failing to personalize the shopping experience is one of the biggies! The article says, “During this hectic time of year, people like it when a retailer makes gift-buying easier. Marketers can keep a history of gifts purchased last year and send an email to the shopper with a link to this list, helping the shopper remember what gifts she gave last year, and select different gifts this year. Take advantage of the personalization email offers over other marketing channels.”Read the full article at 1to1Media

Experts on retail sales are obsessed with Thanksgiving weekend — particularly the Black Friday shopping frenzy. But the numbers may not be as conclusive as generally thought. “In recent years, Black Friday has been the busiest shopping day of the year. But it’s not considered a predictor of the rest of the holiday season, since it accounts for about 10 percent of total holiday sales.” Meanwhile, major merchants including J.C. Penney and Sears offered early morning Black Friday specials on their Web sites at the same time as in their stores, as they aimed to compete with pure online retailers. This move greatly increased online sales on Thanksgiving and on Black Friday which overall rose 11% year-over-year. “Black Friday was definitely expanded. It wasn’t as concentrated,” said Bill Lewis of Karabus Management, a retail advisory firm. He noted that heavy online buying this past weekend likely depressed store traffic. Karabus’s Lewis believes the best gauge for the season’s kickoff and for overall holiday sales will be from stores’ quarterly earnings reports, which will be released in February.Read the full article at The Associated Press

Retail businesses need to channel their energies with online, catalogue and physical businesses talking the same language, says Fadi Shuman, co-founder of Creative digital agency Pod1. Shuman notes “Retailers who will lead into the next decade and beyond will be those who understand that a true multi-channel strategy is one that works as a whole. It shouldn’t matter where they actually transact from, all touchpoints are integrated and the data centralized. Today, second and third generation websites are built with social, personalization and multi-channel in mind. That is to say, a successful multi-channel business will be one whose combined whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Robin Terrell, managing director of John Lewis Direct underscores Shuman’s argument noting multi-channel customers spend twice as much with the retailer per year than store-only shoppers. Furthermore, 38% of customers who select the deliver to shop for collection service go on to make an additional purchase in store when they pick up their order. Shuman concludes, “An integrated, multi-channel strategy will pay dividends for brands putting the customer at the heart of their experience.”Read the full article at Marketing Week

Despite the belief that high-end shoppers are gradually coming back to stores and with retailers such as Macy’s and Saks indicating improvement, the latest data suggests that the battered sector may need to do more to prove this pickup in momentum can be sustained. Sales in the luxury sector declined 7.3% in November, their first drop since August. “The [luxury] recovery may not have found sure footing,” said Kamalesh Rao of the SpendingPulse report. Meanwhile, a Discover card survey found about 57% of luxury shoppers indicated in November that they plan to spend less on holiday gifts this year. Read the full article at MarketWatch

Adam Cahill of Hill Holiday believes online advertising is booming and offers a list of nine of the top “takeaways” – or lessons – from 2009 that the industry can learn from and expound upon in 2010. Among the nine takeaways are that “the emergence of ad exchanges and Demand-Side Platforms” has made display advertising more relevant than ever. Another big lesson according to Cahill is that more marketers and advertisers are learning to “measure the right things” noting “It’s become easier and more affordable to measure the offline impact of online sales.” To read about the other lessons check out Cahill’s article.Read the full article at ClickZ

After Cyber Monday, online retailers can breathe a little easier. Though shoppers are still cautious about spending this holiday season, they seem to be increasing the dollars they spend online while decreasing the amount they spend at stores. “I think the recession is actually favoring online,” said Fiona Dias, EVP of strategy and marketing at GSI Commerce. Still, 0nline shopping is still just a fraction of total retail. This holiday season, people will spend $30 billion online and $438 billion offline, according to eMarketer and the National Retail Federation. Overall, online spending is expected to increase 5.4% while offline spending is expected to decline 1%.Read the full article at NY Times