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Does your site maintain its usability across many browsers? If not, you could end up leaving money on the table this holiday season. Browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (which comes standard on Macs) now make up about 30% of the browser market. Firefox alone enjoys 20% of the overall market share.

Matt Poepsel, vice president of Gomez, Inc., whose services test and monitor the performance of websites says that the increase of non-Internet Explorer browsers could cause some e-tailers grief.

"This year more than ever, websites can look and function differently from one browser to another. Online retailers can no longer assume that all shoppers are using Internet Explorer. They must ensure their sites look good and work well across a wide range of browsers - or risk frustrating customers and losing the sale."

Okay, I understand that we're all trying to "give a jolt" to the economy. But I was still surprised today when Lycos provided a list of Christmas gift ideas two days before Thanksgiving Day. Aren't we all supposed to wait until Black Friday?

Nevertheless, for shoppers who like planning ahead -- or for online retailers and etailers looking for what will be hot this holiday season -- Lycos just announced its ninth annual list of the most popular toys and video games, based on web search activity.

(For a complete list and commentary of the Lycos Top Toys and Video Games of 2008, go to the Lycos 50. You can also voice your opinion on this year's list, and weigh in on weekly Internet trends and pop culture on the Lycos 50 Blog or follow the Lycos 50 on Twitter.)

It shouldn't come as a shock that Apple's iPod holds the top spot as the #1 most-searched for toy this holiday season. But this year, the Apple frenzy includes hot-searched items like the iTouch and iPod Nano.

Harry Potter, at #11, makes a fifth consecutive appearance in 2008, with Harry Potter games, books and DVDs dominating Harry Potter-themed searches.

New in 2008 is KOTA, the Triceratops Dinosaur (#15), generating more search interest than Fisher Price's New Elmo Live (#19). Meanwhile, not so hot in 2008 are Hannah Montana-related toy items, which made a big splash in 2007, but fail to make this year's list.

Spongebob Squarepants (#14) takes over as the top licensed character-themed toy of 2008. Spongebob was last seen on the Lycos Top Toy list in 2005. And when it comes to dolls, Barbie (#6) continues to reign, extending her run on the annual Lycos list of Top Toys and Video Games to nine consecutive years of appearing in the Top 10. But there's not enough data on Caribou Barbie to see if that will be a big hit this year -- let alone in 2012.

Gaming consoles see a big resurgence in search popularity in 2008, with the Nintendo Wii (#10) capturing the most search interest, generating 25% more search activity than the Xbox 360 (#12) and Playstation 3 (#13). Also seeing a resurgence in 2008 are old school classics like Monopoly (#17), despite the current housing market.

Five of the top 25 toys in 2008 originate from the popular world of anime including Naruto (#3), Pokemon (#4), Dragonball (#5), Inuyasha (#7) and Gundam (#16). Meanwhile, one new toy making the 2008 list may be unfamiliar to most adults, but if search activity is any indication, expect the Bakugan Battle Brawlers (#24) to be flying off the shelves this holiday season.

On the video game front, the massive multi-player game RuneScape (#1) scores big with web users for the fourth consecutive year as the most-searched video game of 2008, while Final Fantasy makes its first appearance on the list since 2005, with Final Fantasy XIII (#3). Also racking up points online, making first-ever appearances on the top video games list, are war-themed games including Call of Duty: World at War (#9) and Gears of War 2 (#14), while Guitar Hero World Tour (#8) and Wii Fit (#15) are the most popular Wii-themed games based on web searches in 2008.

Also new in 2008 are Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games Fable 2 (#17), Fallout 3 (#18), Street Fighter IV (#10), Dead Space (#19), Far Cry 2 (#22) and BioShock (#25). This also marks the fourth consecutive year the Madden football-themed games fail to make Lycos's Top Toys and Video Games list.

As for me, I don't do any Christmas shopping until the very last minute. That way, I don't have to figure where to hide presents where my three kids (or wife) can find them before December 24th. Yep, when I say "last minute Christmas shopping" I mean last minute shopping. You'd be surprised how simple decisions are on Christmas eve.

Yahoo! Shopping has launched a deal finding portal called Yahoo! Deals. You can access the portal at deals.yahoo.com.

It culls sales on various products across the web from sites such as Woot!, Amazon, and Deal News. It also finds coupons and storewide savings from a plethora of online retailers.

Yesterday, we talked about how women are looking to cut back on their holiday shopping. This is a great tool to help them maximize their shopping dollars.

Here's a screenshot. Check out the site and come back and tell us about your first impressions in the comments.

If you're not familiar, CafePress is a site where you can purchase custom-designed apparel and gifts. There are many merchants selling their designs as well. Today, CafePress unveiled its new design, and it looks great.

But searching for a design you like can be a chore. That's why I think CafePress should adopt an online ratings system to help the best designs be showcased first in their search results.

Yes, this can be abused, but it can also create a community, something that is currently only found in the CafePress forums.

CafePress competitor, Zazzle, which has experienced explosive growth in the past year despite higher prices and fewer products. What they do have is a 5 star rating system as well as the opportunity to leave comments on products. I think this helps customers better find what they're looking for. If I had to take a guess, a customer would rather pay $5 for better design at Zazzle than a mediocre design at CafePress.

Don't get me wrong, there are quality designs at CafePress, but finding them organically, like I said, is a chore.

Hopefully the next design update CafePress unveils is a techie-one that improves search.

Related Reading:
SEO, Site Search, and Email Marketing Ranked as Most Important to Online Retailers
Make a Good Investment in In-Site Search Engines

E-tailers rate SEO, site search, and email marketing as the most important e-commerce technologies when it comes to promoting their businesses, according to new survey data released by SLI Systems.

• 91% of the retail companies surveyed cited site search as critical, very important or important to their online businesses.
• Of the retailers that have measured the impact site search has had on their businesses, 87% reported positive results.
• 54% saw an increase in sales as a direct result of adding new site search capabilities, while 44% experienced greater conversion rates and 40% cited better customer satisfaction.
• Of the retailers polled, close to 60% said they would be likely to consider a hosted (SaaS) site search solution over a traditional installed application to reduce costs, lessen the strain on IT resources and make for more rapid deployment.

SLI Systems' CEO Shaun Ryan shares why this data is important to understand in view of the upcoming holiday retail season: "Adopting proven technologies that can guide shoppers to a merchant's site in the bustling world of e-commerce will enable retailers to deliver a better customer experience and ensure the holidays are fruitful."

Related Reading:
SLI Rolls Out Learning Search Update with New Auto Complete Feature
SLI Systems Joins Bazaarvoice Radius to Help Marketers Execute Integrated Social Commerce Strategies

Online marketing company AdEx has announced the acquisition of Bay Harbor, an online lead generation firm. Bay Harbor uses a proprietary software platform to perform behavioral targeting which identifies marketers' best prospects in several financial services and other consumer interest segments.

"Bay Harbor's lead generation platform allows us to capitalize on the ever-growing online financial services sector," said Scott Rewick, Chief Executive Officer of AdEx Media. "This acquisition is synergistic with our existing business and will further enable us to meet the needs of our large customer base of advertisers, publishers, distributors, online retailers and consumers."

Related Reading:
Consumers Ok with Social Ads, But Rarely Find Them Targeted
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Microsoft launched a limited time promotion today called Back-to-School Deal Days for Live Search cashback. The promotion lets customers save big (and in some cases double the rewards) from hundreds of participating online retailers.

The back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. That bodes well for Microsoft's share of searches as they continue to compete with Yahoo for (a distant) second place.

Live Search cashback offers ad-funded cash rebates to customers using the service. Live Search also offers price comparisons, making side-by-side price shopping quicker and easier.

A recent survey from Deloitte found that during this back-to-school shopping season, 71 percent of households plan on spending less on back-to-school items than they have in previous years. With consumers feeling financial strain from higher gas and food prices, Live Search cashback is offering back-to-school shoppers extra savings to stretch their dollars further.

Back-to-school savings start today and will run for a limited time during the month of August.

How It Works: Online shoppers can search, shop and get cashback rebates from hundreds of participating online stores through the Microsoft Live Search cashback program, which launched in May. Current retailers include Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, Foot Locker and Zappos.com, among many others. This month, the cashback return is even higher with Deal Days.

Here are a few examples of the bargains:

Rebate of 36 percent on Jordan Men’s AJF 12 basketball shoes from Foot Locker
Rebate of 18 percent on Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PCs from Zappos.com
Rebate of 30 percent on The North Face Doubletrack backpacks from eBags

Consumers can save money each time they use Live Search cashback. For every qualifying purchase, the shopper will be sent an e-mail message confirming the Live Search cashback savings. Consumers’ cash can be claimed when their Live Search cashback balance hits at least $5, 60 days after the purchase. Microsoft will provide the rebate one of three ways: via PayPal, check or direct deposit into a bank account.

Three out of 10 major online retailers offered new payment methods as an additional option to credit cards in December 2007, according to a study from Brulant.

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Last month Nielsen Online released the results of survey suggesting that online shoppers prefer the convenience of online shopping as their main reason for participating. This month, another survey says that price is the most important factor.

Low prices was their fifth concern, behind ease of finding the items they sought, with just 46 percent naming low prices as their primary reason for shopping online. Just 24 percent cited low shipping costs.

Nielson Online’s Ken Cassar suggested consumer preferences for convenience spiked during the holiday season, as shoppers sought to avoid crowds at brick-and-mortar locations.

These findings are in sharp contrast to market research firm Synovate of Chicago for Guidance, who says America’s uncertain economy is driving an increase in bargain hunting.

Guidance’s poll suggests the opposite of Nielsen’s, as 67 percent chose price as their first or second most important factor in online shopping (43% 1st, and 24% 2nd), and 59 percent (18% and 41%) of respondents chose free shipping as their first or second choice.

By comparison, only small percentages chose convenience factors like speed/efficiency of checkout (8%) or in-store pickup/returns (3.5%).

Also interesting about this survey is that those with higher incomes (above $75,000 annually) favored special promotions or coupons more often than those from lower income brackets.

So which is it? Price or convenience? I imagine we could hold our own poll and come up with a third set of numbers. But it may pay off if online retailers can focus on a combination of both to maximize sales.  

Online shoppingBusinessretailpricingholiday

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If you can do so without freaking her out, look at the nearest female.  Is she dripping with electronics gear?  New rumors indicate that women are buying more of the stuff, and may actually be buying more than men.

This would mean a lot to online retailers – whether they chose to redecorate their sites in pink or made more subtle (and less offensive) changes, male shoppers are probably what they expected and planned for.  So, with Hitwise’s Robin Goad as our guide, let’s get into the data.

In 2007, he found that men outnumbered women roughly 53 to 47 in visits to the “Shopping and Classifieds – Appliances and Electronics category.”  Goad then adds, “[T]he representation of female visitors to the category against the online population as a whole decreased last year.”

So should we give up on the idea of women as the dominant electronics buyers?  Well, no.  “Women accounted for 54.6% of visitors to our Shopping and Classifieds – Department Stores category during the same period . . . ” Goad continues.  “And online department stores are certainly selling electrical goods . . . . So maybe the answer is that women prefer to purchase their electricals at department stores and high street chains, whereas men prefer the more specialist shops.”

None of this gets into why women (and men) are buying electronics, of course – there may be a mass swap on Christmas day that messes everything up.  Still, it looks like online electronics retailers might want to rethink any male-oriented strategies they’ve been using.

Tags: Electronics, Online, Women

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