December 06 2007

Vouchers mean traffic

Users are searching for vouchers on websites, and putting a voucher on your website can triple website traffic.

We had an avalanche of emails here at IR after our last newsletter, and most of the emails were about vouchers and coupons, but it’s not just retailers that are getting their knickers in a twist, according to Hitwise consumers are going mad for vouchers.

The publicity surrounding real and fake discount shopping vouchers helped ‘vouchers’ to become one of the top 10 fastest moving search terms sending traffic to retail websites, with searches for the term reaching a two year high last week.

One company that benefited was Thresher Group, which saw traffic to its website increase by 240% in the week ending 24th November 2007 – the week that it’s 40%-off Christmas voucher swept the internet. Discount shopping vouchers can be an effective form of viral marketing, and email plays an extremely important role in spreading the message.

Selfridges was another retailer that recently ran a successful voucher campaign, and the amount of traffic it received from Email Services tripled for the week ending 1st December 2007 – the week that its 20% off voucher was released.

Fashion retailers have also benefited from the craze, with a number of high-street and online brands, including Gap, Whistles and Oki-Ni issuing discount vouchers. The Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds - Apparel and Accessories category experienced a 19% year on year increase in UK visits between November 2006 and 2007. This growth has been driven by an improved online presence from the major high street brands, as well as the continued popularity of Ugg boots. Searches for the winter boot have increased by 158% since November 2006, and they were the third most searched for product sending traffic to Shopping and Classifieds sites during November.

We’re happy to get more comments on vouchers and coupons just send them to marcus@internetretailing.net

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)