As the calendar moves into the final month of the holiday shopping season, savvy internet marketers should make themselves aware of the typical holiday shopping patterns.
It makes good sense to stay on top of the trends. Online shopping continues to grow. Consumers spent $9.6 billion online between Thanksgiving Day and the following Sunday, according to a report from Adobe Digital Insights. The next day, Cyber Monday, sales reached $3.39 billion, a 10 percent increase over the same day in 2015.
But the shopping season is far from over. As much as a quarter of all shoppers don’t even get started until the beginning of December, and many who started early haven’t finished shopping yet
What follows represents some tips for internet marketers as we shift into the final month of holiday shopping.
Internet Marketing Tips: Buyers Change in December
Early in the holiday season, the pool of shoppers consists primarily of females who operate as the chief buyer in a household. Promotions and discounts for early shoppers can work well during this time, from about September through Thanksgiving.
After Thanksgiving, the makeup of shoppers changes. Now young males typically dominate the group (and older males who never learned to change their shopping patterns). This group may respond to a different kind of internet marketing effort.
Ease of Purchase
While promotions and discounts helped attract savvy shoppers who got their holiday shopping done early, the situation changes in December. Young males have a different priority. Typically, they look to get the shopping done as quickly as possible as they get closer to the Christmas deadline. A switch to pushing the ease of shopping online, as opposed to fighting the crowds at the mall, may prove effective.
Go Mobile
Hopefully, you have tested various marketing ideas via mobile throughout the year. If marketers needed more proof on the growing shift to mobile, Amazon provided it after the 2015 holiday season when it reported that 70 percent of holiday customers shopped on mobile devices. And the Adobe Digital Insights report indicated that conversions of mobile reached 1.9 percent on smartphones and 3.7 percent on tablets on Cyber Monday, which is above the holiday average (1.3 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively).
Keep An Eye on Weather
Seems obvious, but many don’t take this into account or take action on it. When the weather outside turns bad – think snow days in the northern part of the country – then people tend to shop online more. This means that while you might have a marketing budget set up for the holiday season, it could prove worthwhile to dial up the spending on a day when things get rough outside in a big section of the country.
Don’t Sweat Ad Costs
Yes, the cost for online advertising is going to increase. In 2015, data shows that average CPM costs increased 39 percent for mobile and 180 percent for desktop during the holiday season. However, higher profits can cover this. In last year’s holiday shopping season, consumers spent an average of 17 percent more on every purchase during the holiday season.
Keeping these issues in mind can help bolster success in what should already be a profitable holiday season.
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