British Retail "Egg-specting" a Strong Easter Online

This year Easter arrives in the first week of April and even if you don’t sell chocolate eggs or confectionary there are still significant opportunities for retailers. Research by the British Retail Consortium revealed that last year’s April retail sales grew 6.3% from the same period in 2008, with Easter driving a large proportion of growth in the non-food and apparel industries [1]. YoY non-food sales grew 12.5% from April 2008 for all non store related sales [1].

As expected the Gifts & Greetings industry sees a sharp seasonal rise in searches for Easter related cards and gifts following Valentine’s Day and Mothers Day.


Source: Google Insights for Search, ‘Easter’ in Gifts & Greetings UK web search in Mar - Apr 2009.

Easter is also a key period for the Home & Garden category. Last year consumers seemed to make the most of their four day weekend by investing in home comforts rather than travelling abroad. In the four week run up to the holiday period total sales for DIY stores and garden centres rose by 18% while spending on airlines and hotels declined [2].

Typically, last year’s Easter bank holiday weekend represented the peak of search interest for the Home and Garden category and was its busiest period for 2009.


Source: Google Insights for Search, Home & Garden category web search in Mar - Apr 2009.

The apparel industry also sees a substantial rise in traffic over the Easter weekend as users look for the first bargains of the Easter sales as well as the new season’s fashions. Last year overall clothing sales saw their highest growth for the month of April since 2006 [3].


Source: Google Insights for Search, Clothing Retailers category web search in Mar - Apr 2009.

So how can you make sure you capitalize on the Easter opportunity and generate maximum sales? We recommend the following:

• Be sure to plan and budget effectively for the seasonal spike in traffic in order to maximise my coverage and sales.
• Where appropriate add Easter themed keywords to your campaigns and ensure your entire product range is covered.
• Be sure to update your ad texts to reflect the Easter season and highlight special offers that you might be running. To make your ads even more relevant use the Keyword Insertion formula.
• Keep your negative keywords up to date in order to ensure receive the most relevant traffic.
• Be sure to have landing pages that bring users directly to the page related to their search query.

[1] Internet Retailing, May 2009
[2] Albemarle Interim Management Group
[3] BBC News, 12 May 2009

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team