E-commerce the big winner from holiday sales period

US shoppers will be looking for bargains in the upcoming Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales – UK shoppers maybe not so much – so brands and retailers on both sides of the Atlantic will need to be alert to where their main opportunities lie.

What’s happening? 

A post-pandemic burst of spending has abated and with inflation continuing to affect consumer purchasing behaviour, sale days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are likely to be more important than ever in this year’s holiday spending plans. Volume sales will grow, but the value of sales will increase at a slower rate than last year.

Retailers will need to pitch their offer accordingly, taking note of shifting patterns of demand, while those brands not being promoted by retailers can still benefit from driving traffic and being “retail-ready”.

Takeaways

• Deloitte is forecasting a 3.5%-4.6% increase in US holiday sales this year, or around half that of 2022, although e-commerce sales are expected to grow three times as fast as the bottom end of that range.
• It’s reported that TikTok will be offering sellers, in its recently-launched-in-the-US TikTok Shop, subsidies of up to 50% as it seeks to win over holiday shoppers.
• In the UK, a minority (14% in a consumer survey by It Works Media) are regular hunters of Black Friday deals; most people (58%) believe Black Friday deals are not good value for money, so retailers could be better off focusing their holiday marketing efforts outside of this date.
• Previous research has shown that a strong seasonal campaign can positively frame brand experiences to build stronger business results beyond the critical Christmas months to the following year.

Sourced from Deloitte, Bloomberg, It Works, WARC