A new poll suggests a holiday boom for small online businesses

Holiday shopping can be a drag. Long lines, surly clerks, pushy crowds, miles of walking—at the end of the day, your dogs are beat. Fortunately consumers know what a pain holiday shopping can be and are turning to shopping online as an antidote to aggravation. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by Yahoo! and Harris Interactive, 76 percent of shoppers polled said they plan to shop for gifts online—some of them while at work.

That’s good news for online retailers of all sizes. But what’s even better for many of you self-service publishers is that 75 percent of those polled said that they were likely to purchase gifts online from small businesses. Sixty-three percent said that online specialty, niche or boutique retailers were among the “best places” to shop for hard-to-find gifts.

The 3.3 keys to success
The survey showed that three key factors help consumers determine whether they might shop online at small business sites: a secure payment system, easy customer checkout and free shipping. In addition, participants stressed ease of navigation, a simple checkout process and easy registration.

Ads vs. e-commerce
Some online retailers may be understandably leery about displaying contextual ads on their pages, fearing that they may drive customers to the competition before a sale has been made. But what about serving up ads after a sale is made and the checkout process is complete—on the Thank You or Confirmation page, for example—or in the event that checkout has been abandoned? Using Ad Blocking and Ad Targeting publishers can help ensure that the ads they show are unlikely to be those of direct competitors, and more likely to be those of businesses complimentary to their own, while still in the interests of their users.

To learn more about this survey, visit Yahoo! Media Relations.

—Michael Mattis, Blog Editor