The IBM Coremetrics Online Retail Holiday Readiness Report is just out and is chock full of online shopping trends, as well as statistics and analyses. The report also includes best practices to help maximize your holiday returns. A partial summary of the report is shown below. Feel free to download your free copy for additional details.

As you know, the 2010 holiday season was huge for online retailers. The Coremetrics report indicates online merchants got double-digit increases in website sales and average order size. Consumers seemed to ignore the recession last holiday season, and this trend continued into 2011. Coremetrics benchmark data suggests the coming holiday season could be another record-breaking season for online retail.

However, the report warns of pitfalls. Consumer attention is at its weakest level, as indicated by metrics like “average time on site” and “page views per session.” Savvy visitors are spending less time browsing retail sites than they did in prior years. The report says they are shopping surgically, zeroing in on just the items they need. The bounces rate (percentage of single-page sessions) is also up and has remained steady over the last year and a half.

Not surprisingly, mobile browsing and shopping has increased as consumers enjoy the convenience and functionality of tablets and smartphones. Mobile sales as a percentage of overall site business nearly doubled in Coremetrics’ reporting period, with mobile shopping likely to reach double digits by the holidays. Social media visitors and sales have increased moderately; however, these shoppers are more than twice as likely to convert compared to overall site visitors.

The Coremetrics annual holiday guide provides in-depth analyses of key trends in online shopping based on anonymous data aggregated from over 500 U.S. retailers participating in the Coremetrics Benchmark program. The report also includes best-practices on how retailers can make the most of the opportunities during the all-important holiday season.

Online Shopping Trends

The holiday season is offers a huge opportunity for online retail sales, which are predicted to increase significantly over the next few years. Research firm Forrester reports the following statistics to support this prediction:

• 83 percent of consumers prefer to shop online than in crowded stores during
Thanksgiving weekend

• 21 percent of online shoppers expect to spend more over the web in 2011

The above trends were also documented in the Coremetrics Benchmark data. The report looked at trends in five key areas listed below. We will cover the first two in this article.

• Consumers are spending more on more items
• Mobile device usage and social media are growing
• Consumer attention continues to decline
• Carting and ordering hit record highs
• Single-page “bounce” visitors remain high

Consumers Spend More on More Items

Between the 2009 and 2010 holiday seasons, retailers saw a double-digit gain in Average Order Value. Order values also went up substantially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2010 compared to 2009.

If these trends continue, retailers can capitalize on consumers’ willingness to spend. However, they must aggressively expand their email marketing, web analytics, mobile and social media efforts to maximize returns and increase customer loyalty.

Retargeting browsers and abandoners with personalized emails and targeted display ads is a good strategy, as is product recommendations technology. Mobile device support is a must, while social media offers a new way to get consumer engagement and site visits.

Coremetrics Concludes: “Increases in average order value and average number of items per order should prompt savvy retailers to look for ways to smartly engage online shoppers and capitalize on consumer use of social media and mobile devices.”

Mobile Usage and Social Media Are Growing

The Coremetrics Benchmark data shows steady increases in mobile usage in both site visits and sales. Mobile usage is on the rise and is a critical channel for online retailers.

Mobile site traffic is expected to increase by the 2011 holidays, as well as sales via mobile devices, as consumers use smartphones and tablets for making purchases.

Site visits and sales by social media visitors are also rising incrementally, with the percentage of social-driven site sales higher than social-driven site visits. Coremetrics’ comparison of key metrics across overall, mobile, and social visitor populations reveals the following insights:

• “Social visitors. They’re more than twice as likely as the overall population to convert, at a rate
of 10.7 percent versus 5.2 percent. Many of these social visitors are likely responding to offers,
as their bounce rate (62.8 percent) is high and their time on site (3:26 minutes) is low.

•” Mobile visitors. They’re less engaged than the overall population, with fewer page views, less
time on site, lower conversion, and higher bounce rates. Though this is not unsurprising, it does
underscore the need for retailers to monitor and optimize the mobile user experience.”

Coremetrics Concludes: “Mobile and social visitors are rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Retailers need to move fast to ensure they meet the expectations of fickle mobile visitors, and should continue cultivating the important segment of social media users.”