It’s all been leading up to this. At the end of this week, loved ones will be gathering together to exchange lovingly chosen and carefully wrapped gifts.
The holiday season is almost over, but that doesn’t mean e-commerce sales will shutter. There’s still time for last-minute shoppers to place their orders and hastily pick up presents. Read on to find out what December’s penultimate week has in store for your brand!
December 19 to 25, 2021 Online Sales Summary
At the beginning of the week, we expect high e-commerce sales at over 12% growth YoY. Last-minute shoppers will drive these high sales through BOPIS and mobile orders. Inventory issues are likely to persist throughout this week, as last-minute shoppers seek to quickly fill up their carts and gather gifts for everyone. Be sure to keep your online inventory fully updated to streamline customers’ shopping experience. Consider offering alternatives for out-of-stock products to help your customers check off everyone on their lists.
Sales will slow at the end of the week, as the holiday season draws to a close. While sales will be minimal, your brand should stay active on social media. Ask customers to review your products and to share any photos of their gift exchanges. This user-generated content (UGC) can help you promote your best products of the year. Most importantly, you want to get customers excited for what will be new in 2022!
Keeping Your Customers Engaged
Authentic and inspiring content is more important now than ever before in keeping customers engaged. The marketing world has quickly evolved and expanded to include a myriad of media engagement points. Brands are fighting for their target shoppers’ attention across platforms like gaming, live streaming, podcasts, connected TV, and more.
“Soaring media consumption options present multiple opportunities for marketers to ‘market and sell more’. However, with each media option addition the landscape becomes more and more complex to navigate,” says our Founder and CEO, Udayan Bose.
Creating a holistic understanding of your customer’s purchase journey is critical to meeting your shoppers at each and every touchpoint. From in-store analysis to website browsing to marketplaces and other shoppable media, a customer can find your brand and products through countless channels. The role of marketplaces is steadily growing, as Amazon grabbed a large share of online traffic during Cyber 5 weekend this year. Brands need compelling stories to make themselves memorable across the different avenues of engagement.
“The playing arena becomes much bigger and it is imminently possible that by 2025, store and owned website orders may account for less than 75% of all the customer purchases, from orders and conversions,” explains Bose. “Currently that number is 90%+ for most businesses.”
Further Insights
Say no to average this holiday season. Learn to identify, engage, and win high-value shoppers with NetElixir’s customer intelligence platform, LXRInsights. We’re leveraging our real-time customer insights to share valuable information about your high-value customers’ purchase journey. We show the top products and time of day your high-value customers purchase, as well as predict churn rate and long-term average order value to help you maintain customer loyalty.
