WebProNews » Online

Donate For The Holiday Season By Using GoodShop.com

Manoj Jasra — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:55:09 +0000

With the economy slipping, charities across the nation are bracing themselves for declining contributions this holiday season.

While individuals still want to support their favorite cause, they may not have the time or the money to do so. There is a solution. More than 70,000 nonprofits have partnered with a new Yahoo-powered search engine called GoodSearch.com, and online shopping mall GoodShop.com to enable their supporters to generate donations just by doing something they do everyday – search the Internet or shop online. What makes the system so compelling is that it doesn’t cost the users a thing. It’s a form of philanthropy that works for everyone in this tough economy!

Consumers are helping their favorite causes by shopping at GoodShop.com where they can choose from more than 800 well known retailers including Target, Apple, Macy’s, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Petco and others. The shopping experience and the prices are exactly the same as going to the retailer directly, but by going through GoodShop, up to 37% of the purchase price is donated to the user’s favorite cause. In addition, GoodShop provides the user with coupons and deals for the stores so not only are they helping a cause, but they’re saving money while doing so!

Similarly, with the GoodSearch search engine, approximately one penny is donated to the users’ favorite charity with every search. You use it exactly as you would any other search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo so you get quality search results) and the pennies add up quickly – just 500 people searching four times a day will earn around $7300 in a year! It doesn’t cost the users a thing!

GoodSearch and GoodShop have quickly spread via word-of-mouth, the blogger community, and a number of celebrities and their foundations including Jessica Biel, Montel Williams, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Jeff Bridges, and others. This is helping to generate significant funds for the participating nonprofits. For example:

Supporters of the ASPCA are shopping on GoodShop and searching on GoodSearch, to date raising more than $22,000 to help animals in need!
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has earned nearly $10,500!
An order placed at Adobe Software earned Capri Elementary School in California $191!

Internet users have found GoodSearch and GoodShop to be a compelling idea. Lisa Codron, a teacher in Los Angeles, uses GoodSearch and GoodShop in support of Best Friends Animal Society, which runs the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused animals. “It’s amazing. I buy so much online and because of GoodShop I get dozens of discounts as well as the opportunity to support my favorite charity. There’s really no reason not to GoodShop!”

Comments

34% Do Holiday Shopping Online

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:52:53 +0000

About one in three shoppers (34%), in the UK will do the majority of their shopping online, according to comparison-shopping Web site Savebuckets.

Shoppers have become more comfortable with shopping online and people are planning to make purchases right up until the third week of December. Shoppers have learned they can save money by using online discounts, according to the Web site.

"With delivery from online shops becoming increasingly efficient and consumer confidence growing in online retailers, there has been a consistent trend over the last few years towards people shopping online closer to Christmas," said Savebuckets spokesman Marc Ames.

He said retailers have become better at delivering products, with retaielrs using a number of shipping firms to gurantee faster delivery times. "Manic Monday last week was the start of the shopping frenzy, but what we’ve seen is a steady increase in traffic and sales since then," said Ames.

Amazon spokesman Damian Peachey said although there are predictions from payments organization APACS that last Monday was likely to be the peak online shopping day, he believed that consumers still have more purhcases to make.

"It’ll either peak this week or at the beginning of next week," he said. "There are a lot more delivery options now, and if you live in London or Birmingham you can order from Amazon on Christmas Eve morning and receive your purchase by the end of the day."

Convenience Drives Online Holiday Shopping

Mike Sachoff — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:53:54 +0000

A new report form Nielsen Online examines the reasons shoppers turn to the Internet during the holiday season.

Out of about 1,000 shoppers, 81 percent said that the ability to shop anytime was the reason they chose to shop online during the holiday season. Seventy-seven percent said that saving time was their reason to shop online, followed by 61 percent who liked the ability to comparison shop and 56 percent who said it was easy to find items they were looking for online.

A small number of respondents, 46 percent cited low prices as a reason to shop online instead of in a store and 24 percent said low shipping costs were why they made purchases online.

"Coming into the holiday season, retailers are keenly focused on promotions, which certainly have the ability to move the needle in the short term," said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry solutions analytics, Nielsen Online.

"In the long run, however, convenience keeps people coming back to the Internet during the holiday season. It’s available whenever consumers are ready to shop, offers a wide selection, and obviates the need to fight the crowds at the mall."

Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that they will spend between 25 and 50 percent of their holiday budget shopping online, while thirty-three percent expect to spend less than 25 percent of their overall holiday budget online.

"The fact that consumers expect to allocate the same share of what may be a shrinking overall holiday budget to the Web, suggests that online sales growth may not live up to the 20 percent annual growth rates we have seen in years past," said Cassar.

Cyber Monday Spending Hit $733 Million

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:31:23 +0000

Merchants affected by Yahoo’s system outage on Monday have more reasons to be upset, as US consumers parted with $733 million online for the day.

Cyber Monday Spending Hit $733 Million

Unhappy Yahoo merchants may be a little more bitter than they were earlier this week. ComScore reported a 21 percent increase in spending on the Monday after Thanksgiving, compared to the same day in 2006.

Non-travel retail spending reached $610 million for 2006′s Cyber Monday. The 2007 edition blew past that without breaking a sweat, as people apparently returned to work or home after the holiday and set their browsers for “Spend Now!”

ComScore said 60 percent of the spending came from work computers for the day, with the remaining percentage spread between home and university connections. There was a significant change when comparing this year’s Cyber Monday with last year’s, according to the company:

The number of online buyers was up 38 percent compared to Cyber Monday 2006, while the average dollars spent per buyer was down 12 percent. The decline in dollars per buyer may be due to two factors — deeper and broader price discounts offered by online merchants this year and the fact that

Survey: Online Shopping Is Easier

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:26:38 +0000

The ability to shop in your underwear, not necessarily get a better deal, is what’s driving most people to do 25-50 percent of their holiday shopping online. No malls, no traffic, no crowds, no all-day outings.

And that sounds good to me, too.

That’s not justification to raise prices. E-tailers still need to compete with other e-tailers.

According to a recent poll by Nielsen//NetRatings, 81 percent of 1,000 respondents said that the ability to shop any time of day was the reason they chose to shop online. Seventy-seven percent citing saving time as the best reason.

That’s a pretty sweeping majority. Ease of comparison shopping was the next best reason, with 61 percent citing that as the best reason to shop online.

Interestingly, a minority (46 percent) cited low prices as their motivating factor. Low-cost shipping was even less of a draw (24 percent).

“Coming into the holiday season, retailers are keenly focused on promotions, which certainly have the ability to move the needle in the short term,” said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry solutions analytics, Nielsen Online.

“In the long run, however, convenience keeps people coming back to the Internet during the holiday season. It’s available whenever consumers are ready to shop, offers a wide selection, and obviates the need to fight the crowds at the mall.”

Budget Crunches Nudge Shoppers Online

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:33:48 +0000

Although many shoppers will have less to spend during this holiday season, some of that money will find its way to online retailers.

Budget Crunches Nudge Shoppers Online

More than a quarter of holiday shoppers surveyed by Zogby for AOL Shopping plan to part with at least half of their shopping dollars online this year.

26 percent of survey respondents planned to spend this way. Out of the overall survey, 74 percent will spend some of their budgets with online retailers.

Books, movies, and music will be the gift of choice for 57 percent of shoppers. Apparel items and gift cards followed those entertainment options as the top three holiday purchases online.

Internet retailers should take note of browsing habits by shoppers. Though many will make their purchases offline, 69 percent of those surveyed plan to do some research online first. That’s an opportunity for online entrepreneurs to offer a conversion opportunity, like a mailing list of upcoming deals, to those visitors.

Despite all the sunny news out of the White House about the economy, real-world respondents name lower income as the top reason for chopping their holiday budgets. General economic concerns and skyrocketing energy costs had an impact too.

Such concerns should be suggestive to online advertisers. People may demonstrate substantial price sensitivity when shopping this year. Ad copy conveying a suggestion of better pricing could help retailers draw some extra landing page visits.

follow me on Twitter

Number Of Older (Online) Shoppers Surges

Doug Caverly — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:28:58 +0000

As the holiday season draws nearer, you’ll see them at malls and retail stores in increasing numbers: older people with long shopping lists. But people at or over the age of 55 are increasingly likely to spend money online, too.

In 2006, about 13.4 percent of the UK’s inhabitants who visited shopping or classifieds sites were in that age group, according to Hitwise’s Robin Goad. In 2007, that share jumped to 22.4 percent, and the numbers relating to every other category slid down as a result. In fact, only folks between the ages of 25 and 34 remain more likely to shop online.

Since older people tend to be wealthier than the young, this provides companies with a powerful incentive to target them, and Goad’s stats suggest that Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, and QVCUK.com have done well in this respect. Those companies’ Wikipedia entries suggest that they’ve done well overall, too.

The UK branches of eBay and Amazon seem to have succeeded with people of all ages, however, which is an even bigger accomplishment. Expect them to have especially good holiday seasons as a result.

Online Car Shopping

Janet Meiners — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:26:25 +0000

Now there is almost nothing left that you can’t buy entirely online. Autonation is the first to offer this service for buying a car completely over the internet. They are piloting a program that lets customers buy their car online in the Atlanta market with 14 dealerships.

Starting out, you enter your ZIP code, then using drop-down menus you can select a specific vehicle make and model and other features of the car. That includes choosing the color and packages. If you have a trade-in you can also use the used vehicle calculator to get a price for your car. When you and the dealer agree on a price, that figure is subtracted from the purchase price of your new car.

I don’t know how easy it will be to negotiate price or how that part works. However, most of us don’t look forward to that part of buying a car in real life. Maybe they should partner with Priceline.

The site has other tools to help you get monthly payments or credit. Once you’re approved for the amount or a downpayment you can choose to have your car delivered to you or you can pick it up at the dealership. You’ll sign the final papers then. You’ll also get your own customer service rep that you can communicate with by phone or email.

If all goes well the service will be rolled out nationwide. No word on the timeframe for either.

Comments

Tag:

Recall Doesn’t Stall Online Demand For Toys

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:22:38 +0000

Non-travel retail sales for the third quarter of 2007 hit $28.4 billion, a 23 percent increase over the same period last year, with sales fueled by demand for video games and their related consoles and accessories.

The game isn’t over when it comes to online retail sales. Measurement firm comScore noted the rise in year over year sales for the third quarter, including a massive boost in gaming retail.

The video games, consoles & accessories category measured by comScore virtually tripled in US sales year over year. Microsoft debuted its Halo 3 title for the Xbox 360 game console during the period, a move that helped boost their profit to a 23 percent gain over the same period last year.

Consumer electronics, like flat screens and high-definition TVs, grew 58 percent. Toys have been the subject of recalls due to paint containing lead, as used by Asian manufacturers. Despite those highly publicized recalls, the comScore toys and hobbies category grew by 57 percent.

Demand could be challenged by yet another recall, announced by Mattel, due to lead paint on their Go Diego Go toys.

That bodes well for retailers who may have justifiably feared a slowdown in toy sales as the all-important fourth quarter holiday season begins in earnest. Retailers should keep on track with their marketing promotions, rather than taking current demand for granted, as there are four more weeks before shopping demand starts its post-Thanksgiving push.

Including travel, online retail hit $48.6 billion, 18 percent over the same quarter in 2006. Travel retail accounted for $20.1 billion in spending in the third quarter.

Online Shopping Grows 30%

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:45:13 +0000

Online shopping continues to grow and 39 percent of adults reported making a purchase online at least monthly, versus 30 percent in 2005, a 30 percent increase over two years, according to a new study from icrossing, "How America Searches: Online Retail."

Online Shopping Grows 30%

The study found that social media is becoming more relevant to online retailing. Forty two percent of consumers who view information about brands and products on sites like Wikipedia said the information was extremely or very influential to their online purchase decisions. Blog posts, online videos and brand profiles on social networking sites hold significant weight with 18 to 44 year old shoppers.

Use of customer product reviews and evaluations to research online purchases jumped from 40 percent in 2005 to 49 percent in 2007. Seventy percent of all online shoppers said online reviews were extremely or very important factors in their decision-making process.

Sixty-five percent of online shoppers conduct product research using search engines but several large retailers, including Tiffany.com and Target.com, rank in paid search for the tested retail-specific keyword set, but miss out on chances to connect with customers by not achieving visibility in natural search.

The study concluded that with more shoppers looking to emerging online research tools like comparison shopping sites, online image search and blogs, the importance of optimizing sites for a range of content, from product feeds to news, images, videos, local search and blogs is critical to achieving online visibility and capturing market share.