The Christmas Carol is soon to be heard in the streets, but 50% of consumers have already begun holiday shopping despite high prices and product shortages.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Thanksgiving will mark this seasons’ holiday shopping. Reports indicate that only a few customers are willing to wait to buy holiday gifts, especially with urgency and pressure from global supply chain shortages..
For instance, only 25% of customers are expected to wait until Black Friday and 11% until Cyber Monday. Further, 48% of consumers made purchases before Thanksgiving.
Amidst growing consumer trends, popular ecommerce retail outlets, including Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify are expected to grow in revenue.
We’ll uncover what’s fueling the consumer purchase frenzy.
Ecommerce is Booming
Even before the pandemic, ecommerce giants like Amazon and Shopify were growing rapidly. In fact, the physical store retailers were struggling to compete with large ecommerce businesses.
So, it’s safe to say that the pandemic was a catalyst in exploding e-commerce businesses.
Perhaps we cannot ignore the economic and social disruption caused by the crisis; on the flip side, it brought an opportunity for online retailers – to boost their sales and increase revenue.
Lockdown restrictions, boredom, and quarantine monotony led more people to turn online. Besides the growing use of social media, people started purchasing excessively from online stores.
In 2020, US citizens spent $791.7 billion on ecommerce, which was 32.4% more than in 2019. Therefore, the ecommerce industry is expected to dominate in 2021.
Now with holidays just around the corner, consumers are getting impatient. They have started buying their favorite items ahead of the holidays.
Most consumers plan to spend the same amount on gifts as they did the previous year. However, 19% are willing to spend even more.
Changed shopping trends owing to the pandemic is one understandable reason for this shopping behavior. But what else could be driving this craze? We’ll discover it below.
First Come, First Serve
45% of shoppers report that they began their holiday shopping earlier this October. Of the early shoppers, 31% have already purchased more than three-quarters of what they intend to, and only 11% are willing to wait until December.
Here are a few reasons why consumers are doing holiday shopping in advance.
- 51% are concerned about the availability of products they’re willing to purchase.
- 45% expect timely delivery.
- 44% are afraid of uncertain challenges due to the pandemic.
- A few are shopping early just for fun.
Nonetheless, the availability of items and lead times are some of the biggest concerns. Consumers believe in the philosophy, “Early bird gets the worm.” They’re afraid the best products might sell out before they place an order.
The rest expect timely shipping because receiving a gift after the holiday can make up for a ruined one.
Amidst increasing purchases, consumers are less likely to tolerate a bad customer experience. In fact, a few might turn to larger retailers instead of their favorite ones – so they can avoid waiting for out-of-stock items or dealing with longer lead times.
Consumer Preferences During the Holiday Season
Online sales are expected to grow 36.9% to $12.91 billion this year. But that doesn’t imply consumers will compromise their shopping experience. The truth is, they are expecting more from online retailers than they had ever previously.
Here’s what customers expect during the holiday season.
Clear Shopping Interface
Did you know the average cart abandonment rate in 2019 was 77.13%? That’s enough to obstruct your online sales.
An unclear, cluttered shopping interface is one reason why customers might leave the product in their shopping cart and abandon your website.
A busy and distracting shopping interface makes it difficult for the consumer to navigate through product selection and typically consumers won’t make an effort to understand it. Instead, they’ll turn to a website that offers an uncluttered and clear interface and user experience (UX).
Quick Search
The larger your product selection, the more important robust search is to ensure a successful ecommerce store.
Your customers should see the product category, price, color, size, and ratings alongside the item they’re looking to purchase.
An ideal search result and product listing provides prices, stock availability, clear thumbnail images, product descriptions, wish-list options, social sharing options and variations (if applicable).
Offers and Discounts
What are you offering to your loyal customers during the biggest shopping season? Enticing offers and hard-to-find discounts are typical factors that set online stores apart from brick and mortar outlets.
Customers dash to websites seeing discounts, coupons and offers.
Buy Now, Pay Later Model
If your website isn’t offering the BNPL model, you need to reconsider offering this as an online store owner.
This convenient payment method has become a billion-dollar industry, and it’s not surprising.
It adds to the convenience of customers who might not have cash in hand due to increased holiday spending. Perhaps that’s why more people are purchasing from platforms like Amazon and Walmart as they offer the Buy Now, Pay Later payment option.
What Retailers Can Offer to the Customers
As an ecommerce business owner, what can you offer to your customers to increase revenue?
With more people purchasing online, you have fierce competition, and nowadays you need to exceed expectations to attract customers to your site.
- Know your loyal customers? Reward them with a free gift-wrapping or a discount to purchase their favorite products. Also offer more personalized rewards based on their customer profile and data you have available.
- 42% of shoppers say they are extremely interested in brands that offer a simplified checkout process. Perhaps you have your customers’ information saved with you, so your website should be easy to navigate with a clear checkout process.
- 39.4% of shoppers prefer credit cards, 33.9% debit cards, and 13.9% PayPal to make online payments. Make sure you offer all these payment methods.
- Out of stock products are a huge turn-off for the customers. If you’re selling on Amazon, it’s best to utilize FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) as it keeps track of your inventory, and you won’t run out of items as easily.
If you’re looking to sell online and are unsure where to start, book a call and see how we can help you begin from scratch.
Conclusion
Online retail stores are competing against one another which is attributed to increasing sales during the holiday shopping season, Q4.
Sellers on popular ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify are experiencing increased revenue each year.
The fear of uncertainty, out of stock products, and late shipping encouraged consumers to purchase even before the shopping season, starting back in Q3.
Consumers are expecting more, and online retailers who are increasingly willing to fulfill their demands will outpace those that are not.
