Jessica is the Founder and CEO of both Valux Digital and uPro Digital, nationally recognized marketing and PR firms.
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At this time of the year, most people split into two camps: those who enjoy listening to the first Christmas tunes in shopping malls and those who continue to remind us that there are still months to go before Christmas. No matter which camp someone falls into as a person, as a digital marketer, there is only one camp. It is time to get ready to help your brand stand out from the crowd during the 2022 holiday shopping season.
Holiday Shopping By The Numbers
Holiday shopping has an unparalleled impact on the U.S. economy. Statista suggests that the holiday shopping season is the largest economic stimulus of the year for many nations. Sales tend to increase dramatically during this time.
In 2021 alone, holiday retail sales were forecast (paywall) to reach around $843 billion in the U.S. Online sales soared in 2020 as the pandemic took hold and made in-store shopping difficult, and research suggests that holiday shopping sometimes starts early. According to Statista, over 40% confirmed in 2021 that they planned to start the season’s holiday shopping before October’s end.
Why Online Shopping Can Deliver
Even though many of the pandemic-related restrictions were lifted between the end of 2020 and 2021, online shopping still grew year over year.
Consumers don’t seem to be losing their taste for ordering directly on their phone or their laptop in the comfort of their own homes. For e-commerce businesses and digital marketers, that means that it could become harder for brands to stand out in the holiday shopping marketplace.
How To Stand Out From The Crowd During The Holiday Shopping Season
To help their brands stand out from the crowd during the holiday shopping season, digital marketers and e-commerce marketers need to understand their customers’ shopping habits, preferred shopping platforms and favorite e-commerce marketing channels. Applying all three of those factors to a campaign can give it the support it needs to stand out.
Understanding Consumer Shopping Habits
When do your customers start their Christmas shopping? Are they enjoying an early start to the year’s most important shopping season and making their first purchases in July? Or do your customers prefer to wait until the last minute to hopefully grab a bargain?
Knowing the answers to these questions can help marketers redefine their approach. If a brand is targeting consumers who start Christmas shopping in September or even earlier, then the brand’s holiday marketing should reflect that. In this case, I’ve found that a long-term, consistent campaign that starts in the summer often works best.
On the other hand, if the brand in question is a favorite with last-minute holiday shoppers, marketers should focus their efforts on the weeks leading up to the holidays. Analyze the shopping patterns of previous years to gain an understanding of the behavioral patterns of your customers. Alternatively, consider a short survey to learn more about your audience.
Many brands will find that their customers are a combination of both early and last-minute holiday shoppers. If it is not possible to identify a clear pattern, consumer behavior statistics can help.
Identifying The Audience’s Preferred Mode Of Shopping
Despite the popularity of e-commerce, nearly 1 in 2 Americans planned to make most of their gift purchases at Walmart in 2021. However, just under one-third were also planning to spend between $250 and $500 on e-commerce. Which group do your customers fall into?
Over the past two years, e-commerce itself has changed, with mobile phone sales growing in popularity. In the United States alone, so-called mobile commerce grew by more than 40% in 2020 and was forecast to grow another 15% in 2021, according to Insider Intelligence. This would make the market worth just under $360 billion. The report predicted that annual sales would nearly double by 2025.
For brands that rely on online retail, that means creating outstanding mobile shopping experiences. The brand’s e-commerce offering should be optimized for mobile commerce so shoppers can research products on smaller screens. Most importantly, consumers should be able to have a seamless shopping experience by making payments through services like Google Pay or Apple Pay, for example.
Choosing Your Holiday Marketing Channels Wisely
Selecting the right channels to reach your target audiences is not only important during the holiday shopping season. This process should be part of every e-commerce marketing campaign.
However, it is arguably most important in the run-up to the holidays because of the sheer number of brands vying for consumers’ attention. To create a successful campaign, brands and their marketing teams should identify their customers’ favorite shopping channels.
While Amazon is a ubiquitous online retailer, social commerce is fast becoming more popular with marketers and consumers, as I wrote about previously. Eighty percent of U.S. businesses believe they will be selling on social media before 2025. To utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok successfully, marketers should follow some of the same rules they would apply to any other e-commerce marketing campaign. Start by researching which social media outlet most of the brand’s audience uses and develop a campaign that is tailored to that outlet.
Few brands have access to unlimited budgets for their holiday marketing campaigns. Because of those budgetary restrictions, a blanket approach to holiday marketing will not work. Creating a highly targeted campaign that is tailored to the audience’s needs, pain points and shopping habits could help drive conversions this holiday season.
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