No matter what’s happening or what’s in store in the future, people around the world are determined to make the most of their precious moments—especially around holiday times. Just like the 2021 Holiday Season, the 2022 upcoming peak holiday season in early November may face some of the same challenges like gas prices rise, inflation, and fears of a recession. But consumers worldwide won’t let these problems affect their moments of joy and celebrations. And so, the brands and retailers will need to be ready to handle the holiday season and Christmas shopping 2022 sales smartly and make the most of it. Listed below are the top 5- shopping predictions for holiday retail 2022: 1: Black Friday’s Thunder response Black Friday gets a lot of attention since 2015 and with every passing year except 2020, sales have been showing a rise across the entire month of November. In the UK, November sales increased from 45% to 63% from 2019 to 2020 and held steady in 2021. 2: Customer acquisition will be maximum at the start of the holiday season Criteo data shows that in the US and most of the UK, new buyers begin to arise in early November and peak of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Thus, this period is a crucial time to acquire new customers, so plan accordingly. 3: Highly variable shopping journeys will require agile marketing As per 2021 Holiday Season statistics, last year in the US and UK, some consumers moved from browsing to purchasing in less than an hour, while some took almost two months. We already know—each consumer journey is unique. With the help of the right data and intelligence, you can know exactly when and how to reach each shopper based on their journey and touch-points. 4: Physical stores and online will BOTH witness high traffic this season Consumers shopped in stores less in 2020 and 2021, But, according to global consumer survey, physical retail stores are more popular this year. Online ads are more popular than before. In-store shoppers purchase almost twice when they have also visited the retailer’s website. This peak shopping season, opt for a strong omnichannel strategy that helps guide consumers from online or offline discovery through to purchase on the channel of their choice. 5: Holiday Shopping planning will start sooner Shoppers have started checking off their gift lists in July and August. Global consumer survey found that 50% of shoppers started thinking of buying perfect gifts in July 2021, and 30% had already made holiday gifts purchases in August 2021. Be ready to turn this data into action and set out to make big sales in holiday shopping this year. Tips on how can we get more online sales this Christmas holiday season · Shoppers Will Keep Using BOPIS After 2020 covid-19 pandemic, many retailers started offering click-and-collect options like buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) and buy online, pickup curbside (BOPAC). Statista predicts that click-and-collect retail sales will keep growing at an annual rate of more than 15% until 2024. With results and predictions like these, there’s no wonder why large numbers of retailers and brands are implementing BOPIS strategies. · Holiday Shoppers Want Free Shipping When large eCommerce marketplace like Amazon continue to offer free shipping to their Prime members, consumers tend to get are more and more attracted to the “free shipping” label. Customers are likely to abandon their carts when shipping is charged additionally. Heading into the 2022 peak season, it will be important for retailers and eCommerce brands to lower their shipping costs to zero, by either rising the price hikes for individual products or subscription memberships. · Buyers need Free and Easy Returns Since the customer experience is at the top of the priority list, businesses will need to make sure their return process falls into the former category this peak season. Otherwise, they may run the risk of losing customers soon after the Christmas and New Year’s fireworks end. · Shoppers Will Embrace Mobile Commerce According to Insider Intelligence, Mcommerce is expected to nearly double its share of total retail sales between 2020 and 2025. And according to Statista, Mcommerce sales increased from 52.4% in 2016 to nearly 73% in 2021. This trend will definitely continue during the 2022 holiday shopping season. Mcommerce is expected to nearly double its share of total retail sales between 2020 and 2025. And according to Statista, Mcommerce sales increased from 52.4% in 2016 to nearly 73% in 2021. This trend will definitely continue during the 2022 holiday shopping season. So mobile commerce needs to be at the top-notch of your peak season strategy. From your marketing to your website, to product catalog, and customer service, make everything accessible and user-friendly on mobile devices. · Festive shopping events are now Global Black Friday — once largely a U.S. sales event — is now well-established across markets in UK, the Middle East, and Africa. So be ready to sell borderless. · One size does not fit all Even if holiday season is now firmly a global affair, consumer behaviour is far diverse across regions. To overcome this, you need to have the right tools to help uncover where the relevant demand lies; use automation to identify opportunities, and prioritise a selective number of international markets before scaling up globally. · Set your KPIs and be flexible with your marketing Firstly, while writing a business plan know what your goals are for each territory, build brand awareness and know your local competitor. While handling digital campaigning, align your activity to these KPIs and ensure your marketing budgets are flexible. · Personalisation and Localisation Personalisation means delivering a personal experience to customers by tailoring their recommendations and offering products based on their browsing behaviour, shopping habits, buying decisions, purchase history, and geolocation. Localisation means tailoring a website to a customer’s IP address in terms of language and context, so that it reflects the customer’s native buying experience. If you desire to sell internationally, this is an important way to compete with local sellers in overseas markets. · Voice Assistants and chatbots Voice control devices, such as smart home speakers like Alexa and Suri, are increasing in popularity worldwide. 8 billion online voice assistants are expected in use by 2023. Today, Chatbots are a most popular and favourite feature among Millennials who choose live chat as their preferred way to contact brands. Millennials and the younger Gen Z’s make the most purchases online of any age group – making chatbots an important tech trend to keep on the radar. · Multichannel Marketing and Social Media Multichannel, or omnichannel, marketing means using a sales approach that will integrate the customer experience across various channels, including text messages, social media platforms, and emails. 55% of online consumer spending was through a social media channel in 2018, and in 2019, 87% of online shoppers stated that social media helped them make a purchase decision. Many customers also purchase products directly through social media pages like Facebook and Instagram. · Keep your Social Commerce game Up Data suggests that over a third of shoppers (35%) are ‘very likely’ to use social commerce to make a purchase. · Recyclable Packaging is crucial. Reliable study estimated that around 19% of all plastic material ends up in unmanaged dumps, with just 16% being reprocessed or recycled. When 70% of customers in the US and UK believe brands should be doing more to address environmental issues, implementing a sustainable packaging strategy this holiday season is an ideal place to start. If the eco-friendly eCommerce product that can best manage to get affordability, visibility, and transparency – that is, clearly communicated to the consumer; then these will be very successful. And we now know…… Now that we’re about to start the busiest time of the year, it’s time for brands and retailers to kick start their planning for peak success. This includes understanding the market dynamics, current trends, and customer expectations that will shape this year’s peak season. The above holiday shopping statistics UK 2022, the tips, the Christmas gifts trends, and the 2022 Holiday Gifting trends will surely make a terrific upscale in your holiday sales. References ECommerce trends for 2022. ECommerce Trends 2022 | All ECommerce Trends UK 2022 | Avenue Digital. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.avenuedigital.com/news/ecommerce-trends-for-2022/ 2022 holiday and festive season commerce trends: 5 predictions. Criteo. (2022, September 1). Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.criteo.com/blog/2022-holiday-shopping-predictions/ 5 holiday shopping predictions for 2022. Radial. (2022, June 23). Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.radial.com/insights/holiday-shopping-predictions Google. (n.d.). Reach online shoppers this festive season – think with google. Google. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/uk-retailers-e-commerce-festive-season/ GET IN TOUCH: Name * Company * Phone Email * Subject Message *
