2014 Holiday Sales Show Consumers Focused On Mobile, Social, and Digital Savings

The holiday deals are back again, but this year consumers are wising up and avoiding the rush. A survey from Shop.org found that 97.6 percent of online retailers polled offered seasonal promotions. While customers were still lining up to snag a great deal over the holiday weekend, many have opted to skip the lines by changing when and how they shop. This year, Black Friday promotions started a week or more earlier than previous years and many retailers offered the same prices in stores and online. This new shift results in the need for a heavier focus on digital efforts for businesses to keep sales high throughout the entire holiday season.

Expect Season-Long Shopping

Recent surveys from the National Retail Federation (NRF) have shown that foot traffic over the holiday weekend was down about 5 percent from 2013 and total weekend spending is estimated to decline to about $51 billion, a $6.5 billion drop from last year. While these numbers show a downward trend for the holiday weekend, the full story is that shoppers are shifting from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping and taking their time to find the right deals. Despite drops of in-store traffic and overall sales, Channel Advisor reported an increase of online sales by more than 20 percent over the holiday weekend. Additionally, NRF’s annual holiday sales forecast expects a 4.1 percent growth in total sales over last season. This shows that shoppers are leveraging technology to cash in on the savings and expecting retailers to offer discounts that extend throughout the holiday season. The highly competitive holiday market has eliminated the need for customers to rush into holiday deals and has influenced customers shopping strategies.

Image Source: Channel Advisor

2014: Savvy, Mobile, and Social

The data has shown that while consumers may be doing less shopping over the holiday weekend, they still plan to spend more money overall. The most significant reasoning for the shift is how consumers are behaving online and how retailers are responding.

More than ever, customers are leveraging online deals and using mobile devices to research and make purchases. Smarter Commerce reported that smartphones and tablets accounted for more than half of all online traffic on Thanksgiving Day, and Black Friday showed that nearly 30 percent of purchases were completed on mobile devices. Anticipating this demand, many retailers revamped their mobile presence to improve usability and increase sales. According to Shop.org’s July eHoliday survey, 69.1 percent of retailers polled said they invested in optimizing their mobile websites prior to the holiday season, up from the 57.4 percent last year.

Image Source: Forbes

Additionally, shoppers are using social media to discover deals and access additional coupon codes. IBM found that referrals from Facebook drove an average order size of $109.94 compared to $100.24 from Pinterest. IBM also found that Facebook referrals converted online sales at more than twice the rate of Pinterest.

What’s happening with consumers?

Customers are changing how they leverage technology. This season has not only showed a shift from brick-and-mortar to online, but also a change in shopping habits. The Consumer Electronics Association reported that 77 percent of online shoppers over the holiday weekend said they went to the web because they found better or comparable deals. Additionally, consumers now expect deals to start early and run throughout the holiday season. As a result, retailers have no choice but to keep up with the demand in this competitive space. Shoppers have become savvier and are spending less to get more thanks to additional coupon codes, social promotions, and digital doorbusters. The expansion of mobile has allowed for comparable deals and line-free shopping anywhere. This new age of tech savvy shoppers has a massive effect of retailers both on- and offline, and is reshaping the holiday shopping experience.

Conclusion

Despite the numbers you may have read about declining holiday sales so far this year, there is no reason to fret. Consumers are still shopping, just smarter! Retailers need to be prepared with a digital strategy, promotion, and optimization plan to fully take advantage of the additional sales to come throughout the holiday season.

2014 Holiday Sales Show Consumers Focused On Mobile, Social, and Digital Savings