Can online retailers dig out of recession, 20% at a time?

Peter — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:05:50 +0000

It may only be early September, but it’s never too early to plan for Christmas. Especially if you’re an online retailer still smarting from last year’s recession-dampened shopping season. With the entire economy mired in the longest recession since the Great Depression, consumers are getting increasingly stingy, even online shoppers. And that means clipping coupons, ecommerce style.

According to the competitive intelligence analysts Hitwise, traffic to websites that give away coupon codes rose 36% in June compared to a year ago. And traffic to sites that offer discounts and printable coupons for essentials like groceries rose 49%. It’s a clear sign that that whole recession thing we’ve been hearing about is tightening a lot of purse strings.

Online retailers can see what’s going on and they’re changing their strategy accordingly. According to a Reuters article, retailers like Shoes.com, who have never offered online discounts before are now having to offer consumers discount codes in order to stay in the game. Since all the competition is doing it, they have to as well.

Whether this trend continues as we ease out of the recession will be interesting to see. But with online consumers growingly increasingly savvy, and budget-conscious, it’s unlikely to completely abate any time soon.

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Can online retailers dig out of recession, 20% at a time?