By Ronni T. Marshak

What are best practices among online retailers to support gift giving? All over the world, Web teams are tuning their sites in preparation for the 2009 holiday season. Everyone wants a larger share of consumers’ thinner wallets. Our research shows that if you can streamline customers’ critical scenarios—e.g., giving a gift for a special occasion or buying holiday gifts for friends and family—you are three times more likely to get consumers’ business.

What’s required to provide a great gift-giving experience? We offer a framework of critical features that customers have come to expect. We pinpoint the two most customer-critical features that are “must haves.”

How do retailers stack up against our gift-giving framework? We tested five retailers’ sites: Amazon.com, Gifts.com, Lowes.com, MagicCabin.com, and a less well-known shopping site, Cafepress.com. You can use this framework to do your own test drive.