NigelFrith.com

Which Day Will Be The Biggest Christmas Shopping Day 2010?

Comscore Historical Cyber Monday Stats

Over the last few years we have seen a continual rise in the amount of traffic concentrated on just one day of the year for online shopping. It is true to say that from about November 1st, web traffic for online retail really starts to build up but there is one day in the year which it all comes to a peak – this year, that day that is expected to be on Monday 6th December 2010 – aka “cyber monday”

Having studied traffic trends from some very large shopping comparison sites over the past 5 years the trending of traffic has been quite interesting as it has shown clearly the generally peaks and flows throughout the year – what we see as a normal pattern is a very strong January, with numbers being as high as all of December and sometime beating December but never is there one day which surpasses the cyber Monday stats.

February is a big drop – usually atleast 30% lower than November numbers and as much as half of December/January figures. April is poor normally then it climbs back up to stabilise for May and stays pretty much consistent for the rest of the year with a few low points during summer holidays and bank holidays. In 2010 the General Election in May had a very negative effect on traffic so 2010 has some catching up to do in general.

Traffic starts a slight growth in September with October coming back strong and then, as said above, 1st November seeing the first real signs of the Christmas rush

This year will be even stronger mainly due to two reasons – 1) many more retailers are pushing their online strategy and also using social media to get more users and 2) sites that provide sales information on cheap electricals and voucher codes sites are set to see a bumper increase in consumers hunting down the best deal. What a lot of consumers are starting to realise is that the main retailers do not always put the best deal on their own sites – instead preferring to get extra traffic by letting affiliate sites offer goods at just a few % less than the deals on the main site. This is especially true with voucher codes.

How will Google’s site preview function change search behaviour?

It’s here – its been planned for a very long time but now it is finally here…. Site Preview:

How will it change things? well for one thing I think

How Will Social Media Marketing Change User Behaviour?

As the founder of SocialLabs.co.uk (a UK

Small Businesses are the lifeblood of the UK economy

Having recently had some experience in funding discussions for a business, it was evident that there is still a real and grave problem with banks and large institutions providing seed capital to small business. In fact, the main source of funding opportunity these days coms from the private sector through VC’s. It would appear that seeking funding from private wealth (using an intermediary) is now probably the best chance small business has to get funding.

In fact, with so many wealthy people getting very little returns for their money, this could be a long term change to the way business is funded. The one double-edged sword is that fact that many of the private investors are not even UK residents or tax payers. A good thing from the point of view that it brings money in to

Parade Your Followers!

Here is a bit of twitter fun I recently found. You load your username in and it does a parade of your contacts. It made me laugh out loud. Try it yourself, keep a check on what animations they apply to your contacts…

http://isparade.jp/

Let’s all get rid of our ugly house roof arials

As I sat in my garden this evening, I looked up and noticed the redundant old fashioned arial on the roof. I looked at my neighbours houses and could see that we all have pretty much the same ugly rake-style ariels that festoon the land on virtually every house.

We have become so blind to them that, like chimney pots we only miss them when they are gone, most new houses these days do not have a chimney so therefore chimney pots are something of a rarity in certain areas.

Personally I think houses without chimney pots lack some character but ariels, now these are ugly things that are a blight on the skyline. The great news is that we no longer need them.

They are mostly made of recyclable metal and strapped on with scaffolding pole, surely some enterprising person can come up with a business that takes them away free for you and they make money on the recycling aspect, I hate them and for one would be glad to see them all going. I will be removing mine anyway.

I vote we have a “national arial recycling scheme?” don’t you?

Social Media – Is It A Fad Or The Greatest Revolution Since The Internet?

You Bet It Is!