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Three sure fire tactics for engaging holiday shoppers online are: 1) an ever changing list of top gift items, 2) gift finders and 3) limited time sale offers. So say several online retail experts.

Retailers can develop in-house reports to produce the A list of the company's 10 top selling items, providing shoppers with gift ideas among what's trendy, said Kasey Lobaugh, of consultants, Deloitte LLP. But as some of the best sellers drop in available inventory, software should automatically drop them further down the list and replace them with other popular items that are still well stocked, he added. "Then the fast movers and slow movers start to even out," he reasoned.

Gift finders help shoppers shop for products intended for particular types of recipients on their lists, such as mothers, secretaries or kids, or shop by price or other category. "I've seen strong results, with average order values up about 20 percent with such gift finders," said Fiona Dias, EVP of GSI Commerce Inc. and a former chief marketing officer at Circuit City Stores Inc.

Retailers have also produced strong results with limited time sales, Dias added. These can be online sales that run only during lunch periods, or for a five hour period prior to a special event, such as the Super Bowl. "This is one of my favorite tactics," she noted.

Information in this article was edited from a story in InternetRetailer.com.

Article ID: 745