Online holiday sales grow

E-commerce performed somewhat better than expected this holiday season, making online shopping one of the bright spots in a subdued season.

Online purchases for the Nov. 19 to Dec. 26 period totaled $6.6 billion, up 36 percent from last year, according to BizRate.com. That topped the company's prediction of a 31-percent increase.

Jupiter Media Metrix, a leading Internet research firm, reported that the number of holiday shoppers grew even more. An average of 51.3 million different people visited shopping sites each week during the November 18 to December 23 period - a 50-percent increase from 2000.

EBay, Amazon.com and MyPoints.com were the three most-visited sites during both the 2000 and 2001 holiday, according to the Jupiter survey. Traditional retailers such as Toys "R" Us, Barnes and Noble, Wal-Mart and Best Buy also ranked in the top 15 sites this year.

In a positive sign for future purchases, satisfaction with the online shopping experience rose significantly this holiday season, according to Retail Forward. Seventy-two percent of online shoppers said they were satisfied, compared to 55 percent in 2000, when out-of-stock products and late deliveries plagued web retailers.

More good news for Internet retailers: the worst of the dot-com shakeout may be over. Although 537 Internet companies shut down in 2001 - twice the number that failed in 2000 - the rate of collapse is now slowing, according to Webmergers.com. Webmergers estimates some 10 percent of Internet companies have failed in the past two years.

The following stores have opened up shop in the Mall of Michigan (www.mallofmichigan.com), MRA's e-commerce website featuring unique Michigan specialty stores:
Premier Hold Plus, East Lansing
Dusty's Cellar, Okemos
Parent/Teacher Tech, Brighton
Hull's of Frankfort, Frankfort
Wooden Skate, Okemos
Cropper's Cottage, Saginaw
Occasionally Gift Baskets, Ann Arbor
Grandpa Shorter's Gifts, Petoskey
ComputeRACC, Alanson
Country Traditions, Ray
B.R. Noble Historic Country &
Antiques, Lexington

Name: Jack Parish, CEO, and Sara Parish, vice president of retail and Internet operations

Business: The Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop, Berkley

Website: America's Old-Fashioned Toy-Shoppe,
www.toy-shoppe.com

Products: Classic toys and dolls - more than 4,000 products online

Years on web: 7

Percent of sales from web in 2001: 3-4%

Increase from 2000: 125%

Website designed by: Jack. His daughter Sara handles maintenance and order fulfillment.

On the website's origins in the early days of the dot-com mania: "We had big business plans and were talking to all kinds of investors, thinking we would be the next eToys or SmarterKids.com," Jack said. "We spent a lot of money the first year and then pulled back. We could see it wasn't going to work that way."

Top resources for website promotion: Affiliate programs such as Commission Junction (www.cj.com) and LinkShare (www.linkshare.com). Online retailers who join the program can have their links placed on affiliate sites. Retailers pay a commission when a customer buys from their site after clicking on the link at an affiliate site.
"I only pay the commission if they bring me a buying customer," Jack said.

Biggest mistake: Buying banner ads. They spent $19,000 to have a link for several months on Ameritech's yellow pages site but got only one sale from it.

What sets them apart from other toy sites: Service. "It's very personal," Sara said. "Sometimes we e-mail back and forth with a customer until we feel like we know the family."

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