This post was written by Terry Costa, Vice President of Marketing, SLI Systems. As VP of marketing, Terry Costa is responsible for SLI Systems’ global marketing efforts as well as for driving growth of SLI’s search technology and services in the e-commerce and publishing industries.

We know that more and more holiday shoppers are doing their gift buying online, but there are some new developments this holiday season that eCommerce professionals should have on their radar. For one thing, mobile devices are playing an even bigger role in the shopping process. In addition, the audience for online holiday shopping appears to shifting somewhat – in fact, older shoppers are increasingly enjoying the benefits of online shopping.

These new angles in eCommerce – during the holiday season and beyond – require special attention from eCommerce providers. For instance, a recent study from Valero found that 20 percent of shoppers ages 55 to 64 expect to do some portion of their shopping online during the 2012 holiday season. According to the study, this is the highest percentage of online shoppers from any age group, followed closely by shoppers ages 45 to 54 (19 percent).

18-24

In an interesting turn, as the study uncovered, shoppers ages 18 to 24 were least likely to do their shopping online – which is a switch from conventional wisdom that younger consumers are more likely to embrace eCommerce tools than their older counterparts.

If older consumers are increasingly taking to online shopping, what does this mean for your business? Make sure your online shopping experience welcomes all shoppers, not just the under-30s. Usability features like refinements and relevant site search results will help all of your customers – even the less-savvy online shoppers – easily navigate around your site and find the products they want. Also, make sure that your merchandising showcases your most popular products and promotions, such as free shipping and free returns, in a variety of ways such as merchandising banners, ribbon overlays, and pages full of product images. With multiple merchandising venues, you’ll guarantee that shoppers in every demographic get the message.

Smartphones

As for shoppers making use of their smartphones and tablets to get their holiday shopping done, usability needs to be one of your top priorities. A recent study we conducted among e-commerce companies found that 40% of respondents still plan to build a mobile commerce site. If you’re one of them, make sure your search box is easy to find and position it in a prominent location at the top of your mobile webpage.

Younger and older consumers rely on mobile devices to do their shopping when they’re on the go and away from home, so localized search results, created with a device’s GPS tracking information, can be very useful. If you have brick and mortar locations in addition to an eCommerce website, localized results can help direct shoppers to stores where a product may be available.

Bottom Line

During the holidays and long after, it’s important to keep a close eye on eCommerce trends that will impact how you present products and structure the shopping experience. Mobile commerce shows no signs of slowing down – but rest assured that there will be new trends developing out of the mobile wave that will demand your attention.