5 predictions for 2022 holiday and festive season shopping trends

5 predictions for 2022 holiday and festive season shopping trends

The previous few years have been challenging, but they’ve also helped us focus on what’s essential and rediscover the joy in our relationships and most fulfilling moments. People everywhere have proven that they will not let anything stand in the way of enjoying life to the fullest, especially during the holiday season.

Despite lockdowns and store closings caused by Covid in 2020, consumers kept their holiday spirits high. It was made possible by retailers, brands, and marketers who adapted their services to meet consumers’ evolving expectations. NRF reported that “despite supply chain problems, rising inflation, labor shortages, and the omicron variant, retailers delivered a positive holiday experience to pandemic-weary consumers and their families” in 2021.

As gas prices continue to rise and inflation in some parts of the world raises concerns of a recession, the upcoming peak season faces some of the same challenges as last year and some new ones. Consumers, however, have proven time and again that they refuse to let a little thing like a bad day ruin their fun. And that their favorite stores and brands will deliver as promised.

In order to aid marketers in making the most of the season, regardless of its form, we analyzed data from thousands of our retail partners (including millions of consumer transactions) and resulted from our monthly global Consumer Sentiment Index survey. This is the information you require:

1. It looks like Cyber Month will continue to overshadow Black Friday.

Black Friday is still a major event, but the 2015 super-spike has been greatly reduced, with the exception of 2020 (peak Covid). Instead, November has been dubbed “Cyber Month” as sales have been on the rise throughout the entire month, proving that consumers no longer wait for a single day to snag the best deals.

Consumers would have to start their shopping far earlier than usual in 2022 due to supply chain interruptions and a scarcity of available personnel. Specifically, 77% of Americans told us they frequently buy holiday gifts on Amazon Prime Day and other competing events offered by other retailers in July 1.

The data below shows that while November sales in the US increased by 10 percentage points in 2021 compared to 2020, Black Friday sales decreased by 31 percentage points. Black Friday sales in the UK dropped 125 percentage points between 2019 and 2021, while November sales increased from 45% to 63% between 2019 and 2020 and stayed the same in 2021.

1. Possibilities of making a purchase will peak early in the season.

According to Criteo, the number of first-time buyers (i.e., customers who have never made a purchase from a given merchant before) begins to rise in early November and reaches its peak on Black Friday in the United States, much of Europe, and Brazil. Consequently, it is essential to focus on customer acquisition during this time.

The percentage of new customers is at its lowest in late December, so it’s important to emphasize repeat business and customer loyalty.

1. Adaptable advertising will be essential in a future of highly diverse consumer journeys.

A small percentage of shoppers in the United States and the United Kingdom were able to complete the journey from discovery to purchase in under an hour last year, while the rest of the population took nearly two months.

In the fall of last year, the average time it took for a customer to go from viewing a product online to making a purchase was just 30 minutes, according to the sales data we analyzed. The average time it took for the most long quarter to go from the first page view to purchasing was 48 days. Similar ranges were seen among consumers in the UK and Germany, but the fastest converters in France required between two and three hours.

This further supports our existing knowledge that each consumer’s experience is distinct. But with the right information and intelligence, you can reach shoppers at the right time and in the right way, no matter where they are or how quickly they are progressing through the shopping journey.

1. During this holiday season, business will be good at stores AND online.

Our international customer survey shows that brick-and-mortar stores are more in demand than they were a year ago, both as a primary shopping destination and a source of shopper motivation. The use of online advertisements for discovery has increased as well. What’s more, our sales figures reveal that store customers spend nearly twice as much when they also make a purchase from the online store. A significant increase in BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) activity was also reported by survey participants when compared to the previous year.

New obstacles, such as higher gas prices, may encourage shoppers to make fewer, larger in-person trips this holiday season. People are more likely to buy in-store if they anticipate demand to exceed supply, which is likely to occur if they are aware that the product they want is only sold there. Shoppers will arrive at stores earlier than in years past due to longer shipping times and earlier last ship dates. This, along with the aforementioned statistics, highlights the importance of having a solid omnichannel strategy in place to assist customers in their journey from initial discovery to final purchase, regardless of the channel they initially used.

1. People are starting to shop for the people on their gift lists.

Half of those surveyed in our ongoing global consumer survey said they began thinking about holiday gifts in July 2021, and 30% said they had purchased gifts by August 2021. The majority of Millennials and Gen Z started shopping for presents earlier than Boomers and Generation X did.