The research suggests that shoppers in the UK are becoming ever more efficient in their buying habits, with over two-fifths  (43 per cent) expecting to finish their present buying in just six hours. Bad news for the high street however comes with the findings that just over a third (37 per cent) are planning to visit no more than five stores on the high street over the Christmas period. Consumers are embracing new technology this year more than ever with 5 per cent browsing and spending via their smartphones.

Coming very soon after last week’s “Mega Monday”, with revenue up an estimated 33 per cent on the previous year, the IMRG has said it believes most spending will happen in the first two weeks of December, when a total of £3.72bn will be spent in the UK. In total, the IMRG says £7.75bn will change hands online over the course of the Christmas buying season.

Our view is that it will be the retailers who adopt a smarter approach to e-commerce, one that allows them to swiftly adjust to the changing shopping habits of their customers, whether in-store, online or via their mobile device, who will succeed.

The popularity of shopping via smartphones and tablets is the latest step in these changing shopping habits, which has seen an entirely new e-commerce platform grow from virtually zero last year. We’re predicting that spending via mobile is likely to top £1.6bn this year.

Certainly the reason we’ve seen online retailers do so well during previous festive periods is the consumer’s desire for convenience. Therefore the more retailers can do to take the pressure off, the better their position will be – and the more grateful the consumer!

Email marketing (or eMarketing) is the perfect channel to engage with the consumer directly, providing answers to their festive purchasing dilemmas and delivering relevant product information straight to consumers’ inboxes, however make sure that messages carry a useful and relevant message!

eMarketing can also potentially help online retailers tackle the problem of late shoppers – by strategically timing the release of emails to encourage consumers to buy before next week’s “Cyber Monday” (28 Nov), highlighting last shopping dates for delivery and offering relevant delivery options, like the ability to order online and the ability to collect in-store.

So what’s in it for retailers this year? IMRG calculates Europeans will spend 52 billion euros online this year, up 20 per cent year-on-year. In other words, there’s little talk of recession, double-dips or crisis in the online retail space.

With numerous promotions targeted at cash-strapped consumers that are bound to crowd the Christmas inbox come December, retailers must also think about how to generate more web traffic to ensure they make the most out of the ho-ho-ho season.

According to the research that highlights the growing importance of mobile as a marketing channel, of all search queries carried out, 15 per cent take place on mobile devices, which is more than double the figure (7 per cent) a year ago.

Smartphones accounted for approximately 7 per cent of all paid-search clicks in the UK in the third quarter, according to the research.  Tablets, including iPads and Android devices, accounted for 3 per cent, up from 1.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

The launch of the new iPhone, as well as new Android-powered smartphones by a range of manufacturers, is expected to give a further boost to m-commerce. Estimates indicate that the total number of UK web users who search and shop by mobile will reach 30m by the end of 2012.

In separate research we’ve read by Forrester this week, UK consumers were found to use the mobile internet more often than their European counterparts.  Nearly a third (33 per cent) of UK adults use the mobile internet at least once a month, compared with the European average of 19 per cent.

Although it didn’t come as a shock to us that a user is more likely to make a purchase from the brands they follow, the high level of brand loyalty was surprising. The study into the habits of Twitter users found that over half of men (55 per cent) and 45 per cent of women were more likely to purchase from a company they followed. Followers on Twitter are more likely to recommend a few (42 per cent) or many (18 per cent) of the brands they follow to their friends.

The reasons why Twitter users choose to follow a brand included the fact that they were already a customer (64 per cent), to receive brand information first (61 per cent), for discounts or promotions (48 per cent) or to receive exclusive content (36 per cent). The study also found that Twitter followers tended to be younger, with 26 per cent of users under the age of 35 following brands, compared with 17 per cent of those aged 35-49 and 13 per cent of those aged 50+.

These findings were mirrored in separate research into the Facebook habits of some 1,500 consumers. The research found that respondents were more likely to recommend companies to their friends after becoming fans themselves, and that they were more likely to purchase products or services from brands after becoming fans.

With the introduction of Google+ for brands this week, which is Google’s attempt to take on the dominance of Twitter and Facebook, there’s now another major player on the social network scene offering companies a new way to connect with fans of what they do – and potentially – turn those fans into loyal customers.

Social commerce is growing rapidly – nearly half of Twitter followers and a little under a third of Facebook users have been active for less than one year. Our own research indicates that users generally are getting more active with brands on social networks, with one third interacting with companies more this year than last.

What this tells us is that web users generally don’t mind being marketed to, providing that they have agreed to the nature of contact, and perhaps most importantly with any aspect of social commerce, the content is relevant to them.

If you’re running an e-commerce website then chances are for your business, visitors are your potential customers.  So while you may think your end goal is to drive a lot of traffic, it’s not until you reach this first milestone that you realise revenue, leads or other outcomes from that traffic are the ultimate objective.

Undoubtedly, driving a lot of traffic to your site is a great thing.  Just because this traffic does not bring in much revenue today does not mean it won’t in the future.  As Amanda says, “Lots of traffic but few conversions is, in a way, a good problem to have.”

So, how do you better convert your current, thriving web audience into revenue or qualified sales leads?  Amanda suggests some of the ways you can start to monetise your website more effectively:

Give special deals more prominence

When you’re starting out, you may have attracted traffic through creative content.  That’s a great start, but if your goal is to make sales you need to effectively get these people to take an action.  One way of doing this could be to help visitors notice special deals and promotions by giving them more prominence of what you’re offering.

Create a sense of urgency with limited offers

Reward your frequent visitors by offering a special deal.  By making them time or quantity-limited, you’re more likely to appeal to your frequent rather than occasional visitor.  Offering a series of exclusive deals is likely to get visitors excited about what’s coming next, and you can track the results to inform future promotions.

Ask your visitors for referrals

In some cases, those visiting your site simply like your blog or appreciate the expertise offered.  If this is the case, there is a good chance that those who are bringing in all of this traffic don’t even need your product or service.  If this is the case, you could test asking your loyal followers for referrals. Furthermore, consider giving a free gift to those who refer your business.  In the end, this will likely be worth the extra cost.  Many companies provide a mechanism for this such as an affiliate programme to incentivise referrals.

Offer premium content for paying subscribers

If you have a lot of subscribers, they clearly like something you’re doing.  Offer premium content or a premium newsletter that only paying subscribers can get.  Do not ask current subscribers to start paying for something you used to give away for free, but simply create something new that comes at a price.

Test, tweak and refine your templates

Many times when a company drives a lot of traffic to their website they do not take the time to analyse how the visitor journey through the site can be improved.  Sure, you did a good job marketing your site across the web to get people interested.  Be sure to check however that once they get to your e-commerce website they know where to go to make a purchase or sign up for a service.  Test and refine your templates until you find layouts which produce greater leads or revenue.

The core task of appealing to your market with content is to understand its needs.  Thinking about your market needs in terms of content, and not goods or services can sometimes prove difficult.  In short, your content needs to:

•    Help meet an aspect of your market’s needs through information or guidance;
•    Always remain factual and helpful and engage with your potential audience;
•    Target key stages of the buying cycle.

Relevant links from targeted sites

Addressing your market’s needs with informative content increases the likelihood that it will be “linkworthy”.  Just because a piece is informative doesn’t mean it will be highly-linkable.  It’s important that your content appeals to the most important and influential people in your market.  This means you need to determine who these individuals are, and identify what gets them linking.

Content that creates leads

Creating linkable content that meets your market’s needs is a good start, but you must be sure to sell your company.  This statement shouldn’t be taken as encouragement to pitch your products and services, but rather to write on topics that illustrate your professional competence, knowledge, or expertise along with the core values of your organisation.  You may find that in the process of communicating the values that make your organisation unique you end up with content that’s more linkable and more likely to generate leads.

Link baiting

This is the sphere in which “link bait” (any content or feature within a website, designed to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website) often misses the mark.  Especially when targeting the multitude of mass market distribution networks for attention acquisition.  Building links with content that isn’t relevant to your target market can lead to brand confusion and ineffective visits.  Though you’re unlikely to pick up links quickly, by creating and distributing content that appeals to your target market, you ensure an experience that resonates with your company’s brand, values and capacity for meeting your market’s needs.

The words you put on a web page have no life of their own until they get read.  And those same words will not gain prominence in search engines until the words are linked to by relevant, authoritative sources.  Creating compelling content is a long-term strategy that will add value to your overall goal of converting site visits into revenue.

The companies that are at the forefront of developments of mobile technology are the ones that are seeing the greatest returns.  We’re not saying for a moment that everyone who currently offers a mobile solution for their e-commerce business is doing it right, but satisfaction levels across the mobile journey are beginning to more closely echo those of e-retail websites, especially when it comes to site search and navigation.

Where mobile e-commerce sites are falling down is during the basket and checkout processes.  Again, this isn’t the case for every company offering a mobile optimised website (not at least for the ones we’ve used) but what this highlights is when it comes to mobile e-commerce design, companies need to start thinking about the entire buying process, from initial browsing right through to purchase.

A huge number of shoppers have flocked to mobile-optimised websites in the last year, with a range of figures between 30% – 50% of shoppers accessing retailer’s websites via their smartphones.  UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) recently suggested that UK retailer’s mobile-optimised sites lead the world in download speeds.

Coinciding with the huge uptake of smartphone handsets in recent years, we’ve seen encouraging developments in the entire end to end customer journey on mobile sites and quite rightly, shoppers are less forgiving on bad mobile experiences as a result.  They expect the same level of functionality as can be found on a retailer’s standard e-commerce website, but they want it to be optimised for their mobile handset.

Facebook has more than 30 million users in the UK (that’s half the British population), and we’re already starting to see the social network turning into a mini-internet in its own right.  Your potential customer can get everything they need without ever having to leave the platform where they are spending their leisure time.

While there is a school of thought that suggests businesses should concentrate on driving interested customers to their own websites, to ignore F-commerce as merely a fad would be foolish.  As an e-commerce platform it’s far more than a distraction from selling, but rather should be seen as something that complements your standard e-commerce site.

Facebook also offers businesses the chance to get close to consumers who are passionate about their products.  After all, if a consumer “likes” your brand’s page or store, they are far more likely to buy something from you.  We’ve seen both sides of the “the value of a like” argument, but the way we see it is that you are selling to people who want what you have to offer.

F-commerce is and will continue to be a powerful tool in a retailer’s arsenal, as imperative as an e-commerce solution is today.  It is certainly important to do it for the right reasons, but F-commerce certainly isn’t just hype.

While 70 per cent of shoppers rate friends’ recommendations as important, just 28 per cent value recommendations from a shop assistant.  Nearly two-thirds value consumer reviews, and 35 per cent the media, the survey of 1,200 people found.

Social commerce and the use of mobile technology play an increasingly important part of the decision-making process for shoppers, with 39 per cent making a journey to Facebook when researching a purchase decision and 38 per cent reaching for their smartphone while browsing in a high street store.

Nearly 90 per cent look at consumer reviews before making a purchase, and more than two thirds said they had more confidence in those reviews when they could see bad as well as good reviews.  The value of independent feedback becomes even more important when shoppers are considering buying from small, or lesser known online sellers.

This latest research paints a fascinating picture of the buying process that is almost entirely based on social interaction.  It’s more likely therefore that someone making a purchase will trust the opinions of those closest to them.  As established social channels become ever more sophisticated, and new channels materialise, one trend that is emerging is the importance of influencing, rather than controlling the purchase process.  It’s not uncommon to see sales increases of more than 20 per cent where social content is put into practice in a useful way.  The responsibility is very much on the retailer to offer service that we want to tell our friends about.

According to the figures, 16% of smartphone owners have completed at least one purchase as a direct result of a marketing message they received on their handset and of those, 55% have completed a purchase directly on their smartphone, 43% have completed a purchase on their computer, and 35% report purchasing in-store.

With more than 45% of UK consumers owning and regularly using a smartphone to browse and buy online, these findings offer a valuable insight into the correlation between rapid smartphone adoption and the subsequent interaction with brands that sell online.  We subscribe to the assertion that by next year, smartphone sales will overtake those made through a computer.  Just as we saw the web evolve from solely a means of discovery to a purchase tool, the mobile internet is developing in much the same way.

While calling, texting and emailing remain the most frequent daily activities for smartphone users, the study also found consumers are increasingly using their smartphones for more than the basics.  More than a third (35%) of smartphone users check Facebook several times a day on their smartphone and just less than that (34%) have checked a bank account balance on their smartphone.  Only slightly less than a third (30%) of smartphone owners have used their phone at least once to check in using location-based services like Foursquare or Facebook Places and 24% have scanned a QR code or barcode on their smartphone.

It has been suggested that on average, people look at their phones 150 times a day.  Whether that statistic fills your heart with glee, or horrifies you probably indicates which side of the smartphone fence you sit on.  What this study does mean is that if you’re not thinking about taking your e-commerce solution mobile yet, you certainly should be.