U.K. Shoppers Finally at Home with In-Home Shopping

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Kenshoo

17 Jan, 2012, 12:30 GMT

LONDON, January 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --



Kenshoo Releases First U.K. Online Retail Christmas Shopping Season Report: Paid search advertisers generated 50 percent more transactions and 26 percent more total online revenue from search

Kenshoo (http://www.kenshoo.com), a global leader in digital marketing software, today unveiled the Kenshoo 2011 U.K. Online Retail Christmas Shopping Season Report, the first holiday report from Kenshoo focused exclusively on the United Kingdom. The complimentary report contains graphic presentations and analysis that document year-over-year (YoY) growth of total sales revenue for retailers driven by search advertising (26 percent), search budgets (26 percent) and average search conversion rate (31 percent). Findings illustrate the U.K.'s transition into a nation of online shoppers, increasing click costs of search advertising in the U.K. and the profitable nature of U.K. search advertising.

"Online shopping in the U.K. has come of age, with consumers more comfortable than ever to make purchases online," said Chris Ward, Managing Director of Europe for Kenshoo. "U.K. consumers now shop more often online but they spend less per transaction in an effort to get the best deals. Retailers also appeared more comfortable with search advertising, generating superior conversion rates with better quality ads."

Other key report findings from the Christmas period include:

  • Despite high competition, U.K. retailers generated strong return on ad spend. The average cost-per-click for search advertising rose by 10 percent YoY but the average return on ad spend of £13.21.
  • Last-minute shoppers drove U.K. retailer revenue up the week before Christmas. During the final shopping week (17-23 December) online sales generated 74 percent more revenue than last year.
  • In the U.K., retailers saw a missed opportunity during the last two weeks of December. Even though budgets decreased four percent from last year, conversion rates and sales transactions increased by 75 percent and 66 percent respectively.

"People joke that Christmas starts earlier every year, but that's precisely what happened this year with advertisers spending more aggressively starting in early November," added Ward. "The inverse was seen with online shopping behavior. Shoppers ramped up their spending during the last few weeks before Christmas, making the most of last-minute online bargains, just as retailers' search budgets were beginning to dwindle. Nevertheless, last minute shoppers flocked online to find bargains, generating an 18 percent increase in average Boxing Day revenue."

Kenshoo produces a similar report for U.S. search advertising spend during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday season. Comparing the two reports shows that U.K. consumers are much more willing to shop online than their U.S. counterparts, with total sales revenues for U.K. retailers driven by search advertising nearly 20 percent greater than that seen by the Kenshoo US Retail Index, which saw a 22 percent rise in YoY revenue for the same period.

The Kenshoo 2011 U.K. Online Retail Christmas Shopping Season Report also includes implications for search marketing in 2012, a calendar timeline of day-by-day holiday season revenue fluctuations, and a glossary of search marketing terms and formulas. The research provided in this report is based on the Kenshoo U.K. Retail Index[TM], a cross-section of Kenshoo retail advertisers covering verticals like apparel, electronics, entertainment, home improvement, gifts, luxury goods and toys. The dataset includes paid search advertising in the U.K. across channels like Google, Yahoo and Bing from 2 November 2011 through 2 January in 2012 and compared to that same period one year prior. The statistics from this past season were culled from an aggregation of nearly 1 billion total search advertising impressions, 20 million clicks and 1 million online sales transactions.

Please visit http://www.Kenshoo.com/2011HolidayReport to receive a complimentary copy of the report.

About Kenshoo

Kenshoo is a digital marketing software company that engineers technology solutions for search marketing, social media and online advertising. Advertisers, agencies and marketing providers use Kenshoo Enterprise, Kenshoo Local and Kenshoo Social to direct more than $15 billion in annual customer sales revenue. The Kenshoo Universal Platform delivers automation, intelligence, integration and scale to make better marketing investments. Kenshoo powers 6 of the top 10 global hotel groups, 7 of the top 10 retailers, 7 of the top 10 telecoms, 9 of the top 10 ad agency networks, and 23 of the Fortune 50 companies. With campaigns running in more than 100 countries, Kenshoo customers include Annalect, Barnes & Noble, CareerBuilder, Facebook, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, KAYAK, LendingTree, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Tesco, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Kenshoo has ten international offices and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Arts Alliance. Please visit http://www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

Kenshoo is a trademark of Kenshoo Ltd. Other company and brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Notes to Editors:

An infographic of key findings from the Kenshoo 2011 U.K. Online Retail Christmas Shopping Season Report is available upon request.

Kenshoo also published two additional reports: the Kenshoo 2011 U.S. Online Retail Holiday Shopping Report, covering search advertising trends in the United States, and the Kenshoo 2011 Global Online Retail Holiday Shopping Report, covering worldwide search advertising trends. Please visit http://www.kenshoo.com/2011HolidayReport to download these reports in their entirety and get the latest updates.