Digital Marketers Need to Work on Elevator Pitch for Holiday Season

Yesterday, comScore released its Q3 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $32.1 billion for the quarter, up 9 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates.

So, if the digital world is humming right along, what does this mean for the analog economy? And more importantly, how does the analog economy impact the digital world?

“Retail e-commerce growth in the third quarter remained solid at 9 percent, a fairly positive indicator for the upcoming holiday season,” comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a press release. “However, we continue to preach caution due to the continuation of high unemployment, which is creating very divergent spending patterns between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ Even Americans who do have jobs still aren’t confident enough to spend freely and many are still pained by their loss of wealth since the financial crisis struck in 2008. That and a higher consumer savings rate leaves less money for spending. Until the economy begins adding jobs at a meaningful rate, the lack of spending power among consumers will continue to be a drag on purchasing, with many consumers indicating their intention to cut back on gift buying this holiday season.”

Ah, got it.

Other highlights from Q3 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates include:

• The top-performing online product categories were Books & Magazines (excluding digital downloads), Computers/Peripherals/PDAs, Computer Software (excluding PC Games) and Consumer Electronics, indicating a higher willingness of consumers to spend on in-home entertainment.
• The top 25 online retailers accounted for 70 percent of dollars spent online, up 5.5 percentage points vs. year ago. Online “pureplay” retailers accounted for 58 percent of dollars spent online compared to 42 percent among multichannel retailers, unchanged vs. year ago.
• 41 percent of online retail transactions included free shipping, down marginally from last year.

So, what does this mean to digital marketers?

For starters, work on you elevator pitch. In the upcoming holiday season, you may only have 8 seconds to pitch your brand.

Jeffrey Hayzeltt at SES Chicago 2010

At least that’s what Jeffrey Hayzlett, “celebrity CMO” and best-selling author of The Mirror Test said two weeks ago in his keynote speech at SES Chicago 2010.

You can read the post in Search Engine Watch by Garry Przyklenk about Hayzlett’s keynote.

Or, you can check out Byron Gordon’s interview with Hayzlett on the SESConferenceExpo’s Channel on YouTube.

The Mirror Test: Jeffrey Hayzlett on the new elevator pitch at SES Chicago 2010