In retail, most of your business comes from regulars—especially online. A recent report from Nielsen//NetRatings says that nearly a fifth of the online buying population accounts for nearly half of total online spending. These buyers, dubbed “most valuable purchasers” (MVPs), spend more dollars online and make more purchases on the Internet than the rest of the online buying population.
The online retail study segmented online shoppers into four categories based on the amount of their online spending and their frequency of purchases. The MVPs, shoppers who spent the most money online and made the largest number of purchases, comprised 18% of the online buyers, driving 46% of total online spending. In comparison, those spending the fewest dollars online and making the fewest purchases made up 55% of online buyers. This group accounted for 21% of online purchases.
Of course, a lot of this buying happens at your expense. Online consumers do most of their browsing and buying during business hours on weekdays, according to a report from Coremetrics. In September, 62% of weekday visits occurred between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. CST, whereas and 26% of weekday visits took place between 6:00 p.m. and midnight. In addition, leading retail sites received 40% more visits and 53% more purchasing visits on weekdays than they did on weekend days during the month of September, with a majority of these visits and purchases occurring during daytime hours.
Employers may not like these stats, but retailers will—the data revealed that visits during daytime hours on weekdays were 15% more likely to result in a purchase than visits during the evening. Site visits and purchasing visits for leading retailers peaks at mid-day on weekdays, between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. CST, making mid-day promotions especially important to product exposure and sales.