Holiday Online Retail Support, Is Your Company Ready?

holidaycustomerserviceIt’s time to start planning for the annual season of giving.  According to industry news and trends, getting your business ready for the holiday season is starting earlier this year, and our teams are here to help support your customer needs.

Yesterday, UPS (United Postal Service) announced they’re looking to hire between 90,000 to 95,000 seasonal employees, that’s 5-10 thousand more employees than last year (and even that is well beyond their original estimates for 2013).  Last week, Kmart announced an expansion of its no-money down layaway program, an incentive for early holiday shoppers.

“We know it’s early,” but that’s when shoppers should start thinking about layaway for the holidays, Jai Holtz, vice president and general manager of financial services for Sears Holdings, Kmart’s parent, said in a statement.

Santa Carrying Shopping BagsKmart isn’t alone. Halloween hasn’t even passed yet and the man himself – Santa – has already been spotted at JoAnn and CostCo stores.  While local store outlets are battling for early holiday sales, online is another story.  According to this great article Five Holiday Shopping Trends Marketers Should Watch, savvy shoppers are more connected than ever before:

  • The time spent on digital platforms has increased by more than two hours in the past three years—from 3 hours 11 minutes in 2010 to 5 hours 46 minutes in 2013 (eMarketer, 2014).

  • Since 2012, the time spent researching popular holiday shopping categories, such as toys and home appliances, has increased 9.9 to 12 hours and 13 to 15.8 hours, respectively (Google and Ipsos MediaCT, January 2014).

  • Before making a purchase in 2013, shoppers referenced 12 sources of information—up from just five in 2010 (Google and Inmar, 2013).

Early online ad buys, social media coverage, promises of free shipping, and excellent deals and discounts are only going to improve online shopping opportunities.  Not to mention: watch for clever digital content marketing this fall.  Storytelling and community-created content will be a top trend for brands and holiday marketers on platforms like YouTube, Vine, and Instagram.

Screen Shot 2014-09-16 at 2.31.16 PMWith the growth in online shopping and early impressions for Christmas shopping, online stores must be prepared for the holiday boom.  Traffic volumes will require the appropriate infrastructure, and that begs the question: are your customer-facing teams ready for the onslaught of inquiries 24/7?  Can you ramp quickly?  Are your teams trained for social media engagement and customer support?

metaverse-mod-squad-squarelogoMetaverse Mod Squad is ready for the holiday season.  We have over 10,000 mods available in Customer Support, Moderation, Community, Social Media, and QA.  Our teams cover 18 languages and are located in more than 40 countries. We have partnerships with the leading CRM tool providers (for example: Freshdesk, Zendesk, Parature, Desk.com, IfByPhone, etc), and we (proudly) have been known to ramp support teams in 24 hours.  We can provide subsequent, additional service to your already-existing teams, or we can take over your customer support needs.

For some companies, the holiday season has already started.  And for others, the time to plan is now!  Let us know how we can help you!

Izzy Neis
Director of Strategy & Engagement

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