Each year it seems the online holiday shopping season starts earlier than the year before. Consumers are already flocking to the web to get a jump on their holiday shopping, yet many retailers are still getting their sites ready or are altogether unprepared. If you’re one of them, register to attend our free webinar – “Seizing the Remaining Season: Find out What’s Selling and How to Sell Yours” – taking place next week, featuring online customer experience expert Susan Aldrich of the Patricia Seybold Group.

During the webinar, Susan will offer insight into what consumers are search for and buying this season, across several categories, including apparel (men’s & women’s), electronics, jewelry, cosmetics and more. She’ll also discuss ways you can take advantage of these buying trends and improve your site’s search and navigation to increase customer engagement and conversions on your online storefront – for example, by incorporating social media content into site search, and extending the search experience to mobile devices.

The 30-minute webinar takes place on Wed., Oct. 27 at 8:30 a.m. PDT / 11:30 a.m. EDT. When you register , you’ll receive a copy of SLI Systems’ Holiday Guide : 10 Steps for Preparing Your Online Retail Site Search for the Holidays.

As you might know, SLI Systems recently entered the mobile arena with a new solution to help e-retailers quickly and cost-effectively create a mobile website. Next week we’ll be demonstrating our solution at the Mobile Shopping Summit at Bridgewaters in New York City Oct. 25-27. If you’re attending the show, be sure to stop by our booth (booth #14) and learn how to develop and drive your mobile strategies. While you’re at our booth, make sure you enter our drawing for an iPad. Our search and navigation experts will be on-hand to discuss your mobile needs and offer guidance on when and how to create a mobile site to drive more sales.

Be sure to also check out our customer, Ian MacDonald of Century Novelty, who will be presenting with Jeff Pandolfo of Amazon Payments on Tues., 10/26 at 1:20pm on his work with SLI & Amazon in creating his company’s mobile commerce site – “Sealing The Deal Through Mobile With Amazon Payments: Be True To Your Brand As You Streamline The Checkout Experience.”

If you haven’t yet developed a mobile version of your website, it’s time to put this task at the top of your list. The mobile device market is growing at exponential rates, and your customers are quickly becoming comfortable with buying products and content on their phones and tablets – in fact, the Coda Research Consultancy says that U.S. mobile commerce sales in 2010 will reach $2.4 billion.

To help you get up and running in this new mobile commerce world, we’ve introduced SLI Mobile, our hosted solution for creating mobile sites with fast and easy-to-use search and navigation functionality. We create the product pages for mobile sites using customer product data that we already have on hand, and we optimize the pages for mobile searching – which is very important given the limitations of browsing on mobile devices. We’re also offering thumbnail product images for fast delivery on mobile devices, and we can integrate the pages with your product rating and review solutions, as well as social media content.

We can deploy these mobile features for all of the major mobile device platforms and devices, including iPhones, BlackBerries, and Android phones. To find out more about SLI Mobile, read our press release, or contact your Customer Success Manager or our sales team at sales@sli-systems.com.

To give you even more guidance on getting ready for the mobile commerce market, we’ve just published a new white paper, Site Search and the Mobile Commerce Revolution. In it, you’ll find advice on developing your mobile commerce strategy, how to create mobile-friendly site search, and your choices for implementation. The guide is free, and can be downloaded here.

Recently we issued our first “SLI E-Retail Holiday Index,” a report on site search and shopping trends that reveals the most sought-after items in various retailing categories. The data was pulled from a sampling of our hundreds of online retail clients, in such sectors as Apparel, Jewelry, Cosmetics, Electronics, and Gifts & Novelty (see below to discover the trends). We plan to issue this data on a monthly basis during the holiday shopping season, and ongoing afterwards.

Some of the data may come as no surprise to you – like the fact that winter boots are a popular apparel item right now (you can pretty much count on that every year around this time), or that traditional diamond stud earrings and engagement rings are highly searched for in jewelry. Still, some of the data may be less obvious – like the fact “iPad” was a really popular search term in the late spring/early summer, but has since dropped off the list. (Maybe it will make a comeback as we get closer to December, but who knows?)

As you continue to develop your marketing campaigns and enhance your sites to capture the high volume of cyber traffic during the holidays, the SLI E-Retail Index might be useful to you. But perhaps more importantly, you can actually get a lot of this data yourself by looking at your own site search analytics to see what’s hot and what’s not on your own site. If you’re not already looking at this data on a regular basis, now’s the time to start!

So, without further adieu, here’s the data from our first E-Retail Index – and keep a look-out for another report next month. And if you’re still looking for ways to beef up your site for the holidays, be sure to download our free guide: “SLI Holiday Guide: 10 Steps for Preparing Your Online Retail Site Search for the Holiday” (available at www.sli-systems.com/holiday-guide.php).

Women’s and Men’s Apparel
Currently, men and women are seeking the best in hoodies, cardigan sweaters and winter boots in preparation for this holiday season, whether shopping for loved ones or to enhance their own wardrobes. Silly Bandz bracelets remain a popular purchase item across many of the retail apparel and novelties stores. And, women are actively seeking out Maxi dresses, while men want the hottest looks in leather jackets.

Jewelry
The most popular trends in jewelry this season are focused on more traditional items, such as diamond stud earrings in all shapes and sizes. In October, online shoppers also sought out ruby and diamond rings and engagement rings, as well as men’s watches, from top designers such as Rolex.

Cosmetics
Online shoppers are busy looking for chemical-free and skin purifying cosmetics items this year. Products such as sulfate-free shampoo and antioxidant moisturizers are high on shopper’s lists, while make-up kits, hair extensions and eyelash growth products are also being searched for frequently. The top brands this season include Dermalogica, Bare Minerals, Ultraceuticals and Jane Iredale.

Consumer Electronics
In the area of consumer electronics, online shoppers are hot on the trail of new laptops, netbooks and all-in-one printers from brands including HP, Panasonic and Toshiba. Cameras are also a popular item from top manufacturers Canon and Nikon. Interestingly, searches for iPads were at the top of the list in June, but tapered off in July and have not gone back up.

Gifts and Novelties
Silly Bandz, hoodies, black lights, Snuggies and electronics tailor made for seniors, like the Go Computer and the Jitterbug phone, were the most popular novelty items in October. And, as consumers prepare for the holidays, items such as tablecloths and champagne glasses were also top on the list. In addition, searches for experience gifts, such as helicopter flying lessons were on the rise.