Security services firm ZScaler has recently released its report “State of the Web – A View from the End User’s Perspective.” The Zscaler report covers the fourth quarter of 2009, which as we all know is when most retail purchases are made. According to Zscaler, as a security services company they are in a unique position to observe millions of internet users across the globe.
Looking at the top 10 shopping sites, ShopLocal.com was the second most popular shopping website next to Amazon.com! Not surprising, Amazon.com being a large online retailer claimed 3.63% of the total retail traffic. In a close second is ShopLocal.com with 2.90% of the total retail traffic.
Looking at the numbers observed by Zscaler, it’s no wonder that ShopLocal.com recently won two Website of the Year awards for Best Price Comparison Website and Most Popular Shopping Site.
They say actions speak louder than words and shoppers have spoken — they prefer to shop online using ShopLocal.com.
Download the free report from Zscaler here.
If you’re looking for additional information, Sebastian Rupley has more info about the report on GigaOM.
Spreezio, the “priceline of local shopping”, has recently launched a great beta site in which all of the local deal and sale content is being sourced directly from ShopLocal via our latest API – SCRAPI. Spreezio calls this location-based personalized shopping. What I call it is a strong, unique and focused vision that really drives at simplicity and easy of use. Look at it this way, ShopLocal.com and Spreezio both share the exact same underlying data set. However one site is very feature rich, complex and somewhat complicated at points (e.g., ShopLocal.com) while the other site is nearly featureless, stark and simple (e.g, Spreezio.com). It really is exciting to see how a fresh set of eyes (and brains) can tackle the same problem and come up with such a different answer.
The initial success metrics that Spreezio has been able to generate are very promising, with nearly one out of every 4 unique site visitors “converting” which equates to claiming at least one deal. Granted the traffic to the site is still small, but if its a good mousetrap, that can easily be solved.
The entire Spreezio user interface is focused on two things. The keyword search box and the level of desired discount that the user desires. All of this happens within the large red tag area on the homepage.
Once a user has selected a geo-location and search radius, a percentage off discount amount and entered the type of item they are interested in, the real behind the scenes magic happens (eg all sorts of filtering/matching/meta data extraction, etc). Spreezio looks at the entire ShopLocal data set and only pulls back the exact deals that meet this unique set of user defined criteria.
Once a user has narrowed in their search on a specific item of interest, the user is asked to claim the deal. Entailed within this step is learning the name and location of the retailer that is offering the deal as well as some additional product details.
There is also a lot of other great things to look forward to from Spreezio in the near term including:
- Launching an iPhone application that packs up the functionality contained within the browser based version and jams it into a nifty little mobile app.
- Integrating Google Maps into the site to better visual depict the local nature of the deals that were found that meet the user’s search criteria.
- Adding a viral spread loop that will enable a user to invite their friends to join in on the deal that they found, socially powered of course.
ShopLocal CEO, Vikram Sharma, was recently featured as part of a CBS Chicago segment about retail holiday sales. A story for all of the holiday shopping procrastinators out there. CBS2 reporter, Dorothy Tucker takes a look at 2009’s holiday shopping season and retailer discounts.
Click here to watch the CBS video.
“Across the board, the deals are not gonna be that strong,” said Vikram Sharma, CEO of Shoplocal.com, a website that features local store ads and analyzes shopping trends.
Sharma says the deals won’t be as deep this year because retailers don’t have as much merchandise to sell.
“Inventories are much tighter because they’ve been able to plan for a leaner shopping season,” Sharma said. “So they’re offering deals, but they’re 20, 30, 40 percent deals.”
Sharma says instead of waiting until a few days before Christmas to promote deep discounts, this year, stores like Sears took a different approach by offering one-day deals.
Tucker’s advice “if you see something… grab it. The chances of it being cheaper on Christmas Eve are slim. In fact, with less stock on the shelves, if you wait, that perfect gift could be gone.”
You can find the full website article (with video) here.
SHOPLOCAL.COM WINS TWO WEBSITE OF THE YEAR AWARDS: BEST AND MOST POPULAR SHOPPING COMPARISON SITE
Chicago, IL (December 21, 2009) — ShopLocal™, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and the leader in multi-channel marketing services, has won two Website of the Year awards for its shopping and price comparison website, ShopLocal.com.
The Website of the Year awards (http://www.websiteoftheyear.us) have been organized by global online market research company MetrixLab since 2004, and they are the largest annual people’s choice website honors. Winners in other categories included Facebook, YouTube, PayPal and MapQuest.
ShopLocal.com provides consumers with fresh weekly store deals from the nation’s largest retailers including Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS and Sears.The website beat out a number of major competitors to win in the shopping comparison website category. ShopLocal.com took home both the Best Website of the Year – provided to the website with the highest average score on content, user experience and design – and Most Popular Website, given to the website with the highest number of votes.
“We’re honored to be the people’s choice,” says ShopLocal CEO Vikram Sharma. “Now more than ever shoppers are using the web to search for deals, and we’re delighted that they find great value at ShopLocal.com.”
About ShopLocal
ShopLocal (www.AboutShopLocal.com), leader in multi-channel marketing services, offers a complete suite of innovative digital solutions that connect advertisers and consumers – online and in-store. ShopLocal’s industry-leading SmartProduct business solutions (SmartCircular, SmartCatalog and SmartDelivery) enable more than one hundred of the nation’s top retailers, including Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS, Albertsons and Sears, to deliver highly interactive, targeted and localized promotions to shoppers through online circulars, display advertising, search, social media, digital out of home and mobile. ShopLocal is the retail division of PointRoll, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett Company.
About MetrixLab
MetrixLab is a global Online Market Research company that specializes in the areas of New Product Development, Brand Communication, E-Business Performance and Satisfaction Research. Over the past nine years MetrixLab has grown to be one of Europe’s leading online market research companies with offices in Rotterdam, London, Paris, Hamburg and Madrid.
The ShopLocal Retail Index was up 23 percent for the month of November compared to the same period last year. The Index registered at 764 (benchmarked at 100 for January 2006), setting an all-time record.
Retailers generated this strong growth by launching their holiday promotions earlier in November, offering 16% more deals than last year in their online circulars during the first 23 days of November, and accurately predicting consumers’ desire to plan their holiday shopping early. Even though 50% of holiday shoppers plan to spend less this year than last, retailers were able to generate a 0.9% increase in sales on Black Friday and Saturday. As shoppers look more and more to the web for information to guide them in planning their in-store shopping – Google reports a 20% increase in searches for Black Friday and a 50% increase in searches for Black Friday ads – retailers are using the online circulars to reach more shoppers and reach them earlier.
November 2009 ShopLocal Index highlights include:
- The ShopLocal Index is up 23 percent in November year-over-year, with 1,029 million page views (adjusted), versus 863 million last year. This marks the first time that ShopLocal has served more than 1 billion page views in a single month.
- The Other (Specialty) segment led the way with 85 percent growth, followed closely by the Home & Garden segment with 78 percent growth, and by the Consumer Electronics & Office Supplies segment with 60 percent growth.
- The Department Stores and Mass Merchandiser segment showed the least growth, unchanged from a year ago.
- Consumer page views per visit on a per retailer basis averaged 14.4 for the month of November, up 7% from a year ago.
The ShopLocal Index is the advertising industry’s first market indicator designed to track the influence of the Internet on in-store shopping. Updated monthly, the Index is based on the online activity of more than 25 million monthly consumer visits to in-store local promotions that are presented on the sites of more than 50 major U.S. retailers, including JCPenney, Target, Best Buy, Walgreens and Home Depot. These retailers cover all major retail segments including computers, consumer electronics, office supplies, home improvement, department stores, mass merchants, grocery, drug and various specialty stores. The retailers’ online circular sites are powered by ShopLocal’s SmartCircular technology.
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