Toy sale season appears to have customers spending again after a slow retail period, with online pre-shopping portal Lasoo experiencing a spike in traffic as promotions start in department stores around Australia.
The site expects more than two million visitors during the toy sales in July, with half of all in-store purchases influenced by online.
Last year’s Christmas period saw 2.29 million Australians going in-store after researching products on Lasoo, 75 per cent then went onto buy the item. Lasoo predicts 1.5 million people will purchase in-store after visiting its site.
Lasoo CEO Paul Marshall believes the rise in the cost of living has inspired bargain hunting among Australian consumers.
“Pre-shopping on Lasoo empowers shoppers by giving them all the information they need to make an informed decision about when, where and what to buy,” says Marshall.
“Smart shoppers who go online to pre-shop are able to compare prices across retailers to make sure they get the best deals as well as check the availability of hard-to-find toys before they sell out.
“We are also seeing a significant increase in the use of mobile devices to research products and locations. Lasoo has responded by launching a variety of Apps across different platforms to giving our millions of users the added convenience of accessing the site when on the move. Currently, the Lasoo mobile App is in the Top 5 Apps within the Lifestyle section in the iTunes Store,” he adds.