Many online retailers, including Godiva, are warming up to the chilly shopping season. Due in part to quickly dropping fuel prices shopping seems to be stronger than expected, especially online.
Many gift businesses live and die by the holiday season. Not only are they offering amazing discounts and free goodies, but some businesses are also creating free custom holiday season shopping tools. The New York Times reports on corporate gift giving this Christmas
For other online merchants, even the cost of pricey giveaways can be absorbed, thanks in part to the profitability of an oft-overlooked category: corporate gift sales.
Godiva.com is for the second straight year offering a $32 box of truffles to anyone who spends more than $100 on the site - a freebie that Kim Land, who oversees Godiva.com, said pays off nicely.
The company still earns an acceptable (though undisclosed) profit on sales that accompany the promotion. But such giveaways are especially attractive to businesspeople, who like the idea of giving themselves a little bonus while they buy multiple gifts for company clients.
Ms. Land said that to help sustain the site's corporate gifts business, which accounts for at least 25 percent of sales, Godiva.com has also created a business gift recommendation feature, as well as a downloadable spreadsheet to help customers buy items for scores of clients. "December business gifting is very lucrative, and everybody understands that now," she said. "So that marketplace is really heating up."
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