Lyris Shares Online Marketing Best Practices to Help Marketers Better Engage Customers this Holiday Season

E Commerce Expo, UK – October 20, 2009 – Lyris, Inc., the online marketing expert, today announced that it is exhibiting at E Commerce Expo, the conference and exhibition for the online sales channel. At stand #332, Lyris experts will share best practices for strategies and tools that organizations can use to engage with potential and existing customers in the evolving online environment.

Despite the current economic climate, the online retail market continues to grow. According to Forrester, more than 54 per cent of adults will shop online by 2014; additional demand and greater promotion by merchants will drive the number of online shoppers in Europe from 137 million in 2009 to 187 million in 2014[1] Within this growing online environment, customers are increasingly turning to user-generated reviews and social networking to guide their purchasing decisions.

“Online shoppers are becoming much savvier, and are more interested in discovering the range of offers available to them before making a decision about what to buy,” said Andrew Robinson, director of international professional services at Lyris. “Taking an integrated approach to online marketing, by including social media, and mobile marketing into email marketing strategy, means retailers can pinpoint the particular interests of their customers and provide them with relevant and timely information, driving customer loyalty and revenue.”

With the holiday season well underway, now is the time for online retailers to evaluate the results they are getting from their online marketing efforts. In a survey conducted by Forrester, in the run up to the last holiday season, 77 per cent of respondents said they would shop online to avoid queues and another 77 percent would shop online because they didn’t want to rely on shops’ opening hours[2]. With the six week period leading up to and just after the holidays accounting for 15 to 20 per cent of annual sales, according to Forrester[3], this is a make or break season for retailers. At the E Commerce Expo, e-commerce professionals will learn how tools from Lyris can help them optimise online marketing results in 2010.

WHAT:      E Commerce Expo – the annual conference for e-commerce and Internet retailing
WHEN:      October 20-21, 2009
WHERE:      Stand #332, Earls Court, London

Conference delegates and those unable to attend E Commerce Expo can connect and join in on conversations with Lyris executives via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube and can find a vast repository of marketing commentary and best-practices guides on LyrisHQ.com.

[1] Source: Forrester Research Inc., Western European Online Retail and Travel Forecast, March 16, 2009 (updated July 30, 2009)
[2] Source: Forrester Research Inc., Outlook for European Online Retail: Christmas 2008, December 19, 2009
[3] Source: Forrester Research Inc., Outlook for UK Online Christmas Sales, 2008, December 9, 2008