In part 1, we began reflecting on what took place in the ecommerce landscape in the past 12 months. We continue our investigation here in part two.

We don’t have to tell any business in the retail space that the festive season is huge! There’s Christmas, Boxing Day and of course, New Year’s sales. We’re hoping this section gives you an insight into what your shoppers will be looking for this year so that they choose your brand over others. All of the statistics below come from Deloitte’s Retailers’ Christmas Survey 2018 so check it out if you’re keen to read more!

 

Buyer trends

  • When heading in-store, people are looking for an engaging shopping experience with a point of difference. The more personalised, the better! You’ve probably noticed how many companies are now creating products that you can easily personalise with your name.
  • Although online growth continues to grow steadily, in-store experience still matters. Christmas sales continue to be made by shoppers in physical stores and for those who aren’t able to make the rush into stores, it’s important your ecommerce site reflects the service you provide your customers in-store. Think of your website, social media channels and so on.

 

Retailer trends

  • Discounting and sales will continue to be important strategies over Christmas with 62% of retailers planning discounts.
  • Investing and releasing new products are the big focus for retailers in terms of their Christmas sales this year.
  • Generally speaking, retailers are anticipating online sales growth during Christmas of at least 10% (or more).

 

Customer engagement trends

  • New products are gold: they’re the largest driver of sales for retailers in the past 12 months. Additionally, 28% of retailers predict that new sales channels will overtake new products as the biggest driver in the next 12 months.
  • Over half of brands surveyed consider their customer loyalty as being strong.
  • To build towards this customer loyalty, customer engagement and experience (35%) is where it’s at and will remain the main strategy for most retailers. Organic growth was a close second at 51%.
  • Besides selling products, retailers said the key purposes of their physical stores included in-store experience (66%), followed by knowledge, information and advice about products (17%).

 

So there you have it! We know there is a lot of information and statistics to digest here but trust us: use the key takeaways from the last 12 months to drive your festive period in-store and online and you won’t look back!

 

If your business is seeking advice or guidance ahead of Christmas and the New Year, contact our team at Woven today.