5 Takeaways From Online Holiday Shopping 2010

Here are five tips to help you turn last year's "B" grade into an "A" in 2011:

1. Listen to your customers and start improving site search and navigation. Making it easier for visitors to find products is a natural way to increase margins and keep them coming back to your site. Conduct regular tests to ensure your site is easy to navigate.
2. Prioritize personalization, but be careful not to violate privacy. The large majority of consumers are hesitant or unwilling to share their personal information to receive a more personalized experience. Retailers should strongly consider asking visitors if they want to opt in to their profile-based personalization practices.
3. Tread lightly with retargeting. Retargeting can cause serious damage to your brand equity. To avoid appearing like you're stalking customers, Forrester analyst Emily Riley recommends marketers prioritize data testing to find factors that generate lift first and only then cautiously test targeted creative.
4. Expand digital promotions to social media. The survey proved most consumers' purchases weren't influenced by Twitter or Facebook promotions. The percentage that was influenced, is too sizable to ignore. The opportunity to reach buyers via social media will only increase as it becomes pervasive to the online experience.
5. Formulate a mobile strategy. Although consumer behavior still lags retailers’ investments in mobile commerce strategies, I expect to see many more people using smartphones to research and purchase products this year. Retailers that capitalize on the opportunity will thrive.

Carlos Carvajal is vice president of marketing for Baynote, a provider of personalization and digital marketing optimization software. Carlos can be reached at carlos@baynote.com.