That was further amplified this year, since more people are shopping online. But, all these returns can offer a wealth of insights for brands, helping you improve your products and learn more about your customers.  

E-commerce holiday sales were projected to jump 40% in 2020 to $234.9 billion, and about $70.5 billion in purchases were expected to be returned, according to a CBRE report. Overall, holiday returns were estimated to be 73% higher this year than the average over the past few years. 

Still, return policies are an important consideration for shoppers. According to PwC, 53% of consumers base their buying decisions on return politics. Millennials are especially keen on generous and flexible return policies, and 40% (compared to 20% for all consumers) planned to return more items this year compared to last. 

4 ways to reduce holiday returns

Though returns can be costly for brands and retailers, they also present a learning opportunity. Here’s four insights you can take away from your holiday returns to reduce e-commerce return rates. 

1. Identify trends in your holiday returns 

The first step in reducing returns is to understand which products consumers are returning most and why. Some questions you need to answer include:

• Are shoppers returning a certain brand more than others?
• Is size the most common reason for online apparel returns or is it quality?
• Are product descriptions accurate? 

To find out, make sure your return processes ask consumers direct questions. Let them select a specific reason for the return, such as “too big,” “size,” or, “quality not expected,” to gather returns data. Scan review comments for common keywords, as well. 

This valuable customer feedback and the data you pull from it can inform future product launches or improve existing products. Shopper data helps brands and retailers make better decisions about inventory and sales projections, too. It also gives you a glimpse into your customer and their preferences, information you can use to create targeted, personalized marketing campaigns. 

2. Optimize your product pages based on the trends you’ve identified 

Having to return a purchase is a consumer’s least favorite part of shopping online, and 39% say they’ve never purchased from a retailer again after a disappointing purchase. Complicated return processes are even more frustrating. For example, many consumers aren’t able to print out return shipping labels at home. 

Head this off by updating and improving your product description pages. Use the insights and user-generated content (UGC) gathered from analyzing your holiday returns trends to add extra information and more accurate details. 

Returns data often mentions that apparel sizing is off or the color doesn’t match up with the product photo, for example. Including those details in the product description helps other shoppers make better decisions and could cut down on online apparel return rates. 

3. Audit your products with UGC 

When product descriptions contain UGC, like reviews, ratings, photos, and questions, it inspires brand loyalty, enhances customer service, and reduces e-commerce return rates. UGC also provides the social proof shoppers need to feel confident making a purchase. When shoppers are more confident knowing how a product looks up front, holiday returns are less likely.

Products without UGC tend to have higher returns rates. So, it’s a good idea to identify these items and create a campaign to increase review volume. Send emails to the consumers who’ve purchased the product asking for a review — in exchange, offer them an incentive, such as a coupon or freebie. Product sampling is another proven way to encourage reviews and build UGC quickly. 

Clothing giant GANT for example wanted to reduce return rated (both holiday and year-round) so the brand worked with Bazaarvoice to increase the number of customer reviews on an item’s fit and size. The brand also added the ability to ask questions and comment on reviews. These product reviews led to a 5% reduction in return rates.

We have found that customers trust the opinions of other customers more than advertising claims

Head of E-Commerce, GANT

4. Segment your shoppers 

Reviewing purchase and returns data also helps segment shoppers, enabling you to discover their individual needs, shopping habits, and preferences. When you better understand what your customers want and why they’re making returns, it’s an opportunity to build relationships and retain customers.

Segmenting customers guides targeted marketing messages, helping you identify the best ways to communicate with shoppers and recommend new products. You’ll be able to send the right message to the right customer at the right time. Consumers appreciate high levels of personalization, and reward brands who take the time to get to know them with repeat business. 

Reduce holiday returns, increase profit

Holiday returns may be a given, but don’t just take it as a regular seasonal occurrence. It’s an opportunity to learn. These returns contain a wealth of insights that can help you learn more about your customers and how they shop, as well as which products need improvement. The more you learn, the less your customers will have to return. Rhyme intentional.

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Strategic holiday retail timeline

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From shifts in gifts to where they’re filling their carts, we wanted to understand what shoppers are doing this holiday season. We surveyed over 6,000 shoppers in North America, Europe, and Australia to find out.

You can view the full infographic here.

To find out, we surveyed almost 9,000 American members of our Influenster community to see what their plans are for this holiday season. We asked them to tell us how they’re celebrating, who with, and where and how they’re shopping for it. 

Even with less or no restrictions, the holidays still feel different 

Sporting events and live music festivals are being held at full capacity, so it should come as no surprise that almost half (49%) of respondents said that COVID won’t affect their holiday plans. However, when asked if they feel that the holidays will resemble the holidays pre-COVID:

• 49% said not quite, but more so than last year
• 26% said they’ll still be taking precautions
• 25% said they’ll be the same

32% said that their holiday event will require everyone to be vaccinated. 

Consumers are heading online for traditionally in-store events

COVID may be affecting the way about half of respondents celebrate the holidays this year, much less are letting it affect how they shop. Less than a third (30%) of respondents said that COVID will affect their shopping plans, while almost half (45%) said ‘no’ and a quarter said ‘maybe’. In fact, 61% of respondents said that they’ll be spending the same amount of money as they did last year on gifts, while 22% said that they’ll be spending more. 17% said they’ll be spending less.

For those who said that COVID will affect how they holiday shop, 40% said they’ll utilize a combination of online and in-store shopping, whereas 38% said they will primarily/exclusively shop online. But they won’t just be shopping primarily online, they’ll be browsing there as well.

This year, given the hesitation to return to in-store shopping, Black Friday looks like it will be more digital than ever before.  

Consumer purchasing decisions are looking quite a bit different, as well. After a year of hardship and separation, people are looking to get sappy.

People are traveling and gathering, but mostly with family

Over a quarter (27%) of respondents said that they’d be hosting a large family/friend gathering for the holidays this year, with more people than just who live in their household, but almost half (43%) said ‘no’ and 30% said ‘maybe’. Last year, a little over half (55%) said that they had or attended a large gathering as they do often/always do. 42% said they didn’t at all due to COVID. 

While over a quarter (27%) plan on attending/hosting a celebration with friends, like a friendsgiving, only 9% plan on attending their office’s holiday party.

For those not gathering, 46% will be celebrating virtually and buying gifts online to have them shipped to their friend/family’s house. Another 23% who will be celebrating virtually will be sending gifts in the mail. 

Get more statistics beyond holiday shopping

So, while the holidays may not look exactly like they have in years previous, they’re getting there. Just like last year’s holiday shopping statistics told us, brands and retailers need to ensure that their e-commerce offerings are ready for an onslaught of customers.

Learn more

How shoppers are stuffing their stockings this holiday season

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Want to have a cheerful 2020 holiday season? Download our month-by-month holiday prep guide to learn how global retail leaders are getting ready to ring in the season.

It’s more than deciding on what to stock, how to advertise it, and when to host sales – your business’ backend needs to be just as ready as the front of house of your store, both digital and in-person.

COVID-19 has led to a significant spike in online shopping traffic, with our network of over 6,200 brands and retailers seeing as much as a 96% growth year-over-year in orders at the height of the pandemic, with some verticals seeing growth in the triple digits. With COVID-19 still readily impacting shoppers preferences, we’re anticipating this online growth to multiply.

As you can see from above, the spike from holiday shopping will be even greater than the spike we’ve seen at the height of COVID-19.

Why?

• According to an Influenster community survey in August 2020 of 4,350 respondents, over half of responding shoppers are doing the majority or all of their holiday shopping online
• Stores are rolling back their in-store Cyber Week shopping plans
• Per our Influenster survey, only a third of shoppers think waiting in a line is worth it to get a great deal on a gift
• Per our Bazaarvoice holiday consumer survey, shopping online with home delivery is the preferred way to buy gifts this year

Want more consumer insights? Download our holiday shopping infographic here.

So, what does this mean for your business? Plain and simple – your infrastructure needs to be equipped to handle the influx of shoppers, your customer support team needs to be all-hands-on-deck, and you need to have a plan for what-ifs.

At Bazaarvoice, we start our holiday planning early to guarantee we can support all of our brands and retailers and enable them to feel confident in their technical readiness heading into the holidays. By November 1, we freeze all of our code on our clients’ sites into place. This year’s freeze lasts through January 10, 2021. During this time, we have strict restrictions on system changes we’ll allow our team to make.

While we’re doing our part on our end, we encourage all of our clients to check off all of these tasks on their to-do list before October 31:

• Verify your integration code
• Optimize display and submission
• Update your product catalog
• Enable the Product Catalog application
• Verify SEO
• Verify BV Pixel
• Verify post-interaction email
• Verify syndication
• Verify Curations
• Schedule load testing, if needed
• Sign up for system status notifications
• Update emergency contact information

Bazaarvoice is here to support all of our brands and retailers for what is about to be a holiday season unlike any other. For technical readiness best practices, view our guide here.

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Does your business need additional support to have a winning holiday season? Connect with us here.

Holiday shopping has grown over the years into a multi-billion dollar event. In the past 18 years, the only time holiday sales did not increase year-over-year was during the global financial crisis in 2008. Even in the face of the economic ramifications due to COVID-19 and its related economic shutdowns, we’re still anticipating one of the largest holiday seasons to date.

On the Bazaarvoice Network of over 6,200 retailers, we’ve seen shopping activity continuing to increase year-over-year in spite of COVID-19. Year-over-year, our network is seeing more page views, orders, review submissions, and questions asked than this time last year. We’re predicting as consumers settle into the new normal of online-heavy shopping, these online shopping spikes will continue.

Which is in line with trends we’ve seen in years past from the holiday shopping season. While holiday shopping is growing year-over-year, the popularity of online shopping during the holidays has been growing even more rapidly. In 2019, total holiday shopping revenue increased 4.1% while online shopping revenue for the same time period increased 14.6%.

Want to have a cheerful 2020 holiday season? Download our month-by-month holiday prep guide to learn how global retail leaders are getting ready to ring in the season.

We surveyed over 140 global brands and retailers to see how they’re getting ready for holiday shopping this year, and there were two key themes: 1.) Start preparing early 2.) User-generated content (UGC) is crucial for season success. These two concepts go hand in hand – the sooner you start preparing for the holidays, the more UGC you can collect, and the more successful the holiday season will be for your business.

With each passing year, holiday seems to be starting earlier and earlier. This is due in part to the rise in popularity of Amazon Prime Day, which has become known as Black Friday in July. Prime Day, which is now two days of sales, has become an internet-wide sales event. In 2019, 70% of shoppers who made a purchase on Prime Day said at least one item they bought was for a holiday gift.

Although Prime Day is reported to be delayed until October, there’s still urgency to start planning early. In fact, almost a third (31%) of businesses we surveyed are starting their promotions and sales earlier this year, and over a third (39%) of businesses think researching and purchasing will start even earlier this year due to COVID-19.

According to our survey, September is the most popular time for brands and retailers to begin planning for the holidays. However, our team recommends starting sooner. Entering the planning stages early guarantees ample time to collect UGC, which is crucial year-round, but especially during holiday shopping and even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost half of brands and retailers (47%) believe UGC has become even more important for their business because of COVID-19. While 48% of those surveyed have used UGC in their holiday campaigns previously, another 21% are interested in trying it this year.

UGC, which includes ratings, reviews, customer photos and videos, and more, helps your customers make informed decisions and can win you more business. 

In fact, in 2019 we saw an average 159% increase in revenue per visitor among shoppers who engaged with reviews across best-in-class sites.

Because of the impact UGC can have for business, our sales and client success team say the number one request they get from clients and prospects during the holiday season is, “How can I get more content on my product pages?”

And often, this request comes in November or even December, when it’s a bit on the late side to first gather UGC, like ratings, reviews, and customer photos, for products. One of the best ways to get ahead of barren product pages is running a sampling campaign in the summer or early fall.

From retailer-managed sampling programs, to custom sampling boxes, your business has ample opportunities to sample your products to your target demographic

By starting a sampling campaign, you’ll have more than enough high quality content in place on your target products by peak holiday shopping. First, decide which products need reviews. Identifying new products that have or will launch ahead of the holiday season, popular products lacking in reviews, or top-selling products with older reviews are great places to start. Next, you’ll pick a sampling program. Need help running a sampling campaign? Let’s chat about how Bazaarvoice can help. 

Running a sampling campaign not only helps your business secure a significant quantity of UGC for your product pages and marketing materials, but it helps you get reviews that are high quality and recent. These 3 pillars – quantity, quality, and recency – are important to customers as they shop.

Not only will UGC make product pages more informative, marketing campaigns more engaging, and social media content interactive, it’ll actually help reduce returns. When shoppers can see photos from other customers using your product or read a product FAQ, shoppers can buy for their loved ones more confidently, even if they’re buying a product they’re unfamiliar with.

Providing additional support for customers, which includes more UGC, increased customer service support, and more, is crucial for shoppers at all stages of holiday shopping. From the early planners and purchasers, to the last minute buyers, don’t cut holiday promotions short because it’s Christmas Day.

We found that shopping activity stayed elevated through mid-December and while buying did taper around Christmas, it immediately picked back up on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.

Want the full play-by-play of holiday shopping traffic? Download our prep guide here.

As shoppers spend gift cards, make returns, and treat themselves after treating loved ones, your business will still see a flurry of holiday shopping activity come January. Once the month comes to a close, we recommend doing a post-mortem of the holiday season while everything is fresh in your mind. Not sure where to start? Here are the questions you should be asking yourself and your team.

Holiday season for retail can often be a stressful time of year, but it’s also a time of year with significant potential for your business. Planning early, setting proper expectations, and working with a trusted partner like Bazaarvoice can help make a joyous season even more cheerful.

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Want to understand how best-in-class brands and retailers are getting the most out of the holiday season? Download our prep guide here.

Ahead of this holiday season, Bazaarvoice surveyed 2,500 holiday shoppers in the US, UK, France, and Germany and analyzed shopping data from last year’s holiday season from across our network of 6,200 brand and retailer websites. This data gave us a detailed look into consumers’ preferences, plans, and pain points during the annual shopping surge. Whether consumers are shopping online (63% plan to) or in-store (33%), there are pain points that come with every holiday shopping experience. 

Here are some issues that make consumers less than jolly and a few best practices to alleviate them: 

In-store issues drive shoppers online

Two out of three survey respondents (68%) said long checkout lines were their biggest complaint about the in-store experience during the holidays, followed by messy, crowded stores (58%). More shoppers rushing to buy gifts for their loved ones during the holidays means longer than usual lines at the register and stores being thrown into disarray. Shopping online allows consumers to skip the chaos. Consumers also say they opt online because they want more options and product availability, as 34% said limited options was their top in-store pain point.

Shoppers want convenience

The ease of online shopping means brands and retailers must make the in-store experience similarly simple to draw shoppers to their physical stores. More than half (58%) of survey respondents said that improved convenience, like self-checkout and buy online, pick up in-store options, would be the number one way that brands and retailers could improve the in-store holiday shopping experience. 

Slow service frustrates shoppers

The most common pain point for nearly half (48%) of global respondents when it comes to online shopping is lengthy shipping times. Slow websites and cumbersome checkout processes (34%) were also a common complaint, followed by lack of customer support (21%). All of these issues can be exacerbated by increased holiday shopping activity.

Because shipping is such a big concern for shoppers, make sure the costs associated are clear and you execute order fulfillment flawlessly. Whether it’s standard, two-day, or overnight shipping, shoppers expect to receive their orders when promised. 

Shoppers want more assistance both online and in-store

A third of survey respondents said that enhancing customer service is the best way for brands and retailers to improve their holiday shopping experience. As social media merges with e-commerce, consumers have increasing expectations of being able to engage directly with brands and retailers through this channel, as they would in-store and on a website. Ahead of holiday sales, prepare for increased demands on your site. Ensure your customer service team is properly staffed and ready to answer questions and concerns as quickly as they come in. As far as in-store shopping goes, a combination of seasonally-hired additional staff and technology can help remove friction from the in-store experience, and help consumers find their way around more easily or with any questions they might have. 

Shoppers struggle with choosing what to buy

While shopping online, consumers have trouble deciding between the wide variety of brand and product options — 38% said this was their biggest challenge during the holidays. Where shoppers might rely on store associates to help them find what they’re looking for in store, they look to other types of guidance, like customer reviews and personalized recommendations, when shopping online. Shoppers are likely browsing hundreds of products during the holidays, so make sure your product pages are equipped with detailed descriptions, fresh product ratings and reviews, and photos from real customers.  Hearing more about a product from fellow consumers helps shoppers feel more confident in choosing your product. 

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No matter where consumers decide to shop, they want it to be convenient and as simple as possible. Be sure to streamline your consumers’ journeys both online and in-store and make it easy for them to choose your products. To read more best practices for the annual shopping surge, take a look at our Holiday Preparation Guide.

Online shopping is preferred, but in-store isn’t out

Holiday consumers around the world are overwhelmingly shopping online – 63% of global shoppers said that is where they will complete the majority of their holiday purchases. German shoppers are the most likely to do so (69% prefer online), while the French are the most likely to head to a brick-and-mortar location (38% prefer in-store).

But despite headlines in the media claiming shopping malls will be barren wastelands before we know it (if they aren’t already), the traditional shopping mall seems to still be an integral part of the holiday shopping experience. An overwhelming majority (82%) of global respondents plan to do at least a small portion of their holiday purchases at the mall, with UK shoppers being most likely to complete all of their purchases at one (18%). The US by far had the highest amount of respondents say they will avoid malls entirely this holiday season (17%), with the next closest being Germany (8%). 

US and UK consumers start their holiday shopping earliest

UK holiday shoppers are the most prepared. By the time our survey was released in July, 10% of UK shoppers had already started their holiday shopping. Almost a third (29%) participate in Amazon Prime Day and competing “Black Friday in July” sales. US shoppers are right behind them, with almost half (48%) of American respondents planning to start their holiday purchasing before Black Friday. In the US, order volume across our network starts to steadily decline after Green Monday leading up to Christmas, while order volume doesn’t start to decline until December 19th in Europe. German consumers are most likely to wait until early-mid December to begin their shopping (28%). And French shoppers seem to be the biggest procrastinators, as 10% said they wait until right before Christmas to kick off their holiday purchasing. 

Black Friday is the most popular shopping day in Europe

While Black Friday isn’t the start of the holiday shopping season, the majority of European shoppers make the bulk of their holiday purchases that day. Across our network, last year’s Black Friday orders more than quadrupled orders on a typical day in Europe with a 427% increase in order volume. While order volume did increase by 317% in the U.S. on Black Friday, Cyber Monday was not far behind, with a 314% order increase.

Shoppers are very active outside of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush as well. Last year, December 4th was the highest order day in Europe, outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and in the US, it was December 10th (Green Monday). Surprisingly, the plan-ahead UK shoppers tied with the last-minute French shoppers for the most likely to participate in Panic Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas. On December 26th, which is Boxing Day in Europe, our network saw a 39% increase in page views in the US and 54% in Europe. 

Convenience tops shoppers’ wishlists

Lengthy shipping times and slow order fulfillment are by far the biggest pain points for online holiday shoppers across the globe. UK shoppers seem to be the most annoyed by slow websites and cumbersome checkout processes (54%), while only 17% of German shoppers had the same complaint. When it comes to brick-and-mortar shopping, crowded stores are the biggest complaint, which is likely why so many shoppers are opting to make their purchases online.

Shoppers prefer to go big or go local

Likely due to convenience and fast shipping, Amazon is the most common place that shoppers plan to purchase their holiday gifts this year, beating out traditional retailers like Debenhams and Nordstrom and major brands like H&M and Adidas. US respondents are most likely to shop at traditional mass merchants other than Amazon, which may speak to more intense competition between Amazon and other US retailers. Surprisingly, consumers from all four regions except the UK are more likely to shop at small, locally-owned businesses rather than with direct-to-consumer brands. 

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There were a few more stand-out statistics that we found: German shoppers are the most festive, as had the most respondents (28%) say that entertaining in-store holiday experiences and services is a way brands can improve the holiday shopping experience. Interestingly enough, German shoppers are also most likely to avoid sales days altogether (34%). US (49%) and UK (48%) shoppers are most likely to return the gift you bought them for another option. French shoppers must be used to great customer service, as they were the country with the least respondents (16%) to consider pushy/aggressive salespeople as a holiday pain point. 

But overall, holiday shoppers all over the world are pretty similar. Whether it be in-store or online, consumers want their holiday shopping experience to be a convenient one. To get more in-depth with our data, download our holiday ebook.

According to our network data of over 6,200 brands and retailer websites, last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday orders were more than triple the orders we see on a typical day in the U.S. – 317% on Black Friday and 314% on Cyber Monday. Black Friday’s impact was even greater in Europe – order volume increased by 427%. 

All signs point towards Black Friday and Cyber Monday being even bigger this year. Are you ready?

Earlier this year, we surveyed 2,500 consumers from around the world to better understand their plans, preferences, and pain points while they holiday shop. Using this research along with our network data from last holiday season, we came up with a list of 10 ways to make sure you’re prepared for the Super Bowl of the shopping season: 

Collect ratings and reviews on products with no or few reviews

Shoppers struggle with the sheer amount of options they have when shopping during the holidays – especially when seemingly every brand and retailer is hosting a sale. According to our survey, 38% of shoppers’ biggest complaint about shopping online during the holidays was that it was difficult to decide between brands and product options.

While amping up your marketing efforts may help garner some attention, hand the mic over to your customers to advocate for your products and your brand, and help other shoppers who are struggling with purchase decisions. Be sure to collect ratings and reviews on products that have none or few, so that shoppers can hear from their peers and feel confident purchasing from you.

Make sure your product pages include customer photos and videos

Over 60% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase a product if a website has pictures and videos from real customers. Similarly, brands and retailers reported that visual UGC creates a more engaging shopping experience, increases discoverability, deepens brand trust, and increases conversion.

A great way to collect consumer photos is to run a hashtag campaign on social media. Choose a relevant hashtag for a product or a line of your products and ask your customers to tag their photos on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. A hashtag makes it easy to find your customers’ photos and (with their permission!) curate and display these images on corresponding product pages and across your website.

Include UGC throughout your entire marketing mix

In addition to ensuring there is UGC on product pages, be sure to include UGC throughout your marketing mix. Ratings, reviews, and consumer photos can be displayed across in-store environments, online search platforms, advertising campaigns, and social media.

In our annual client survey, more than half of respondents say consumer reviews drive in-store sales and increase brand loyalty. Almost all (98%) of brands and retailers we asked plan to either keep the same tactics or increase the amount of effort they put toward consumer content this year. Don’t limit your UGC to just your online presence!

Answer customer questions on your product pages

In 2018, questions submitted across our network increased by 98% on Black Friday and more than doubled to 110% on Cyber Monday, with over 14,000 consumer questions asked that day. This makes sense, as asking questions on product pages is part of the final stage of product evaluation and what customers do shortly before deciding whether or not to buy a product.

Responding to customer questions early can help shoppers make more informed, quicker decisions and can help prevent a mass influx of questions on what will already be very busy days. In 2018, our best-in-class clients saw a 114% lift in conversion and a 120% lift in revenue per visitor or higher when shoppers engaged with product page Q&A. Be sure to respond to any outstanding customer questions before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend begins and have members of your team ready to answer questions in real time during the sales events, as they increase exponentially, and shoppers are looking to buy day-of.

Use brick-and-mortar to your advantage

If you sell products in a brick-and-mortar location, whether your own or at a retailer, you have a competitive edge over large online retailers like Amazon because you can reach shoppers in two distinct places: online and in-store. According to our research, while the majority will shop online, a third of global consumers will do their holiday shopping in-store, and 41% will head to the mall specifically to complete at least some of their shopping. Furthermore, while 38% of consumers indicated that they struggled to decide between products and brands online, only 16% had the same issue when shopping in-store. The ability to see, feel, and compare products against each other in person makes it easier for shoppers to make a decision.

But while a physical presence can be an advantage during the holidays, it must be done right. The influx of shoppers also means longer lines, bigger crowds, and messier shelves. Two out of three consumers (68%) said that long checkout lines were their biggest complaint about the in-store experience during the holidays, and over half (58%) said messy, crowded stores. Be sure to staff stores appropriately in preparation for the holiday crowds, and keep your aisles and shelves clean and easy to navigate.

If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar location or don’t sell your products at another retailer’s store, consider how to experiment with a physical presence during the holiday season — seasonal pop-ups, unique partnerships, and holiday-inspired in-person events can all generate holiday purchases and provide opportunities to engage with your customers.

Celebrate the spirit of the season

One in five shoppers said the number one  way for brands and retailers to improve the holiday shopping experience is to offer entertaining in-store holiday experiences and services. Moreover, 35% of consumers shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to get into the holiday spirit, and 25% say shopping on major holiday sale days is a family tradition.

Whether it be setting up an opportunity for photos with Santa, giving out holiday goodies, or setting up Instagrammable in-store backdrops, be sure to create festive experiences in your store, on your website, and on your social media channels to get customers in the holiday mood.

Anticipate emergencies

On the busiest shopping days of the year, some brands and retailers lack the technology infrastructure to meet the demand. In our survey, 34% of shoppers indicated that slow websites and cumbersome checkout processes were their biggest annoyance when shopping online during the holidays. When online shoppers find load times lagging, 79% will avoid returning to the site, and 44% will warn off a friend. Be sure to learn from holiday seasons and major shopping days of the past to avoid worst-case-scenario situations and provide the online shopping experience consumers expect.

Optimize e-commerce for mobile

Mobile is the fastest growing channel when it comes to Thanksgiving weekend shopping, as many consumers use their phones or tablets to shop online from the comfort of their family living rooms to take advantage of holiday sales. Between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2018, mobile accounted for 47% of all revenue and 62% of all page views and, for the first time, more orders (51%) were placed via mobile than desktop.

Given this increase and shoppers’ reliance on their phones, it is critical for brands and retailers to ensure that their mobile shopping experience is fast and easy to navigate. The mobile experience has not only become a crucial component of online shopping but also the in-store shopping experience. Many shoppers now use their phones in-store to compare prices, check item availability, and read customer reviews before they make a purchase.

Invest in search and display advertising

Consumers are bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands, of products during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and discoverability is difficult enough on a regular day. Fresh product page content will improve your search ranking and help shoppers find your products, but if you need an extra boost, consider investing in paid search and display advertising in the weeks leading up to the busiest weekend of the shopping calendar.

Analyze your business’ shopping data from last years’ holiday season and so far this year to learn how consumers research and purchase products in different categories. This can inform when and where you should place your ads across different tactics and product families to drive traffic to particular product pages.

Take advantage of the rush to get even more ratings and reviews

Use the uptick of sales during this weekend to increase the number of ratings and reviews you can display on your product pages. By no means does holiday shopping end after Black Friday and Cyber Monday – over 20% of global shoppers from our survey are still holiday shopping in early-to-mid December, and 5% even wait until right before Christmas.

Ask your customers to review your products post-purchase, so that you can continue to collect and display fresh review content throughout and past the holiday season. Be careful about the timing of your post-interaction review requests, as shoppers are inundated with promotional emails during this high-traffic shopping time.

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Although Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales hours have extended over the years, the window for deals is still relatively small. Be sure to equip your website and physical store with the tools your shoppers need to feel confident in quickly choosing your product amongst the thousands of others. To learn more tips to prepare for the holiday shopping surge, download our Holiday Headquarters ebook.

With this top-of-mind, Etsy recently announced ahead of the annual shopping surge that they will now offer free shipping to the US from participating shops when consumers spend $35 or more. This comes after retail giants such as Amazon and Walmart have rolled out updated shipping policies this year to get a leg up on one another. 

‘Tis the season for online shopping. Fast and free shipping can be challenging for brands to deliver but here’s why it’s worth it:

Shoppers increasingly expect free shipping

Studies show shoppers increasingly expect free shipping for their online items, and brands and retailers are doing their best to deliver. Research from Comscore found that a large majority of desktop e-commerce transactions during every holiday season (November – December) since 2015 have included free shipping. Last year, upwards of 80% of transactions during the holiday shopping season included free shipping, growing to as high as 87% during several weeks between Thanksgiving and mid-December. This is an increase from 2015 through 2017, when the share generally ranged from 67% to 77%.

Leading retailers are increasing their shipping speeds

Etsy’s announcement about its shipping improvements is one of many this year from major players in retail. Earlier this year, Amazon announced it would spend $800 million to make free one-day shipping the standard for Prime members, and other major retailers did their best to respond. Shortly after, Walmart announced it would be starting to offer next-day delivery for over 200,000 items on its website. And shortly after that, Target announced the expansion of same-day shipping, giving customers the option to pay a flat fee of $9.99 to gain the ability to buy any of 65,000 items on Target.com and have it delivered the same day.

Slow shipping is the biggest pain point for online holiday shoppers

This attention to delivery detail has the potential to make a huge difference for consumers. Earlier this summer, we surveyed 2,500 holiday shoppers in the US, UK, Germany, and France to learn about their holiday shopping habits, preferences, and plans for this season. Almost half of those we surveyed named “lengthy shipping times/slow order fulfillment” as their biggest pain point when it comes to the online holiday shopping experience. And with over 60% of the consumers surveyed planning to do the majority of their holiday shopping online, this is an opportunity for retailers to step up and deliver.

Heading into the peak of the holiday season, here are two things you can do that will make your shoppers jolly: 

Be clear about shipping costs

Regardless of if you offer free shipping or charge a fee, make sure your consumers are aware of your policy before they purchase a product. Display the shipping cost in multiple places (like on the product page and in the shopping cart), not just on the checkout page. This transparency will help avoid any surprises when a shopper pulls out their credit card. 

Execute order fulfillment flawlessly

No matter if it’s standard, two-day, or overnight shipping, shoppers expect to receive their orders when promised. And because holiday shopping brings out the procrastinator in so many of us — last-minute shoppers will order gifts online as late as a day before Christmas — make sure your delivery systems can handle the time-sensitive demands or risk facing negative customer feedback.

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As millennials grow up, they have waited longer than their parents to buy a house and have kids. At the age when baby boomers were getting married, we millennials are making a different kind of commitment — we’re getting pets. According to recent reports, millennials have become the primary pet-owning demographic in the United States.

This lifestyle change has had drastic impact on the retail industry. Spending on pets has continued to increase year over year, despite the recession and the retail apocalypse, and will only continue to do so. The U.S pet industry is expected to grow to $100 billion over the next three years.

In our own study of 2016 holiday shopping across 5,700+ brand and retailer sites in seven different product categories, the pet category saw online traffic increase by 30% and conversion increase by 37% from fall to winter. Pet parents are not forgetting their animals when it comes to holiday gift giving. Many American shoppers are buying gifts for their pets like they would for a child.

How can advertisers reach this pet-loving audience? The average pet parent will flow through four major stages on their way to becoming a forever customer. Here’s how you should adjust your online advertising tactics to reach pet shoppers at every stage of the consumer journey — and how you should be measuring success.

Awareness

Awareness of your brand is the cornerstone of marketing success. This means a consumer is exposed to your brand’s name and logo across different channels, sees your products in store, or hears about your brand from another pet parent at the dog park.

Pet products are a unique type of thing; it’s unlikely that you would buy pet stuff, or probably even browse online for it, unless you have a pet. Because of this, advertisers can’t use demographic or geographic ad targeting to reach pet owners. How can you reach pet owners to ensure your getting your brand out there? Base your advertising off of intent signals instead. For example, if your advertising data can show you who is engaging with product pages for pet products, this is a great sign that someone is a pet owner or at least in-market for pet items.

KPIs to consider: Delivery, click-through rate, video completion rate

Consideration

From there, the pet parent will move into the consideration stage: they want to buy a new toy for a Christmas gift, but which brand and product line? Remember, pet parents consider their animals to be part of the family. Every pet is special, with different dietary needs, restrictions, and preferences. This is where the deep research begins. In fact, we see that 70% of online shoppers in the pets category read reviews in purchasing.

Having a healthy and happy pet requires careful consideration, and most pet parents will trust their peers, especially because the effectiveness of a certain diet or pet product can only be evaluated after extended use. In this stage, make sure your advertising drives consumers to informative pages where they can learn more about your brand values, see detailed product information, read ratings and reviews from other trusted pet parents, and see endorsements from veterinarians.

KPIs to consider: “Learn More” page button clicks, time on site, visits, high value action/engagement rate

Buy

Driving a user to buy has a lot to do with timing, seasonality, and understanding the life cycle of your product. Ultimately, most pet parents will make purchases for their pet in-store while they pick up basics for the rest of the household. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t pulling up their phone in the aisle to compare prices or check product ratings and reviews. Through our ROBO study, we see that for every incremental $1 sold online in the pets category, an additional $3.87 is sold in-store as a result of reading a review. In pet campaigns we have run, we have seen huge correlations between shoppers who are in-market for bulk groceries and those who buy pet food online — makes sense, right?

In running an advertising campaign with an acquisition goal, you can drive your users to your online store, to a retailer site where your product is sold, or to a “where to buy” page as a proxy to conversion. If your advertising data can allow you to target shoppers who have shown multiple intent signals, this is the best way to reach pet owners who are ripe for conversion. A pet owner that has recently viewed multiple product pages across different retailers and looked at customer reviews and photos is likely getting ready to make a pet purchase.

Work with your advertising team or partner to determine these unique signals that show purchase intent. You should also use conversion data to continually learn and optimize throughout the campaign. You may also choose to work with an attribution vendor, who can demonstrate how your online advertising is impacting sales in store.

KPIs to consider: Return on advertising spend, sales, offline store visits

Repurchase

Finally, a time will come when the pet parent in question will need to refill their prescription, repurchase food and treats, or replace torn up toys and well-used accessories, and it’s always easier to keep a customer than win a new one. The best marketing tactic here is to convince the shopper to be a lifelong customer with the quality, value, and effectiveness of your product.

That being said, it never hurts to use advertising to entice continual repurchase. Consider featuring special prices in your ad creative, running co-branded campaigns with retailers, sending post-interactions emails after each purchase, or offering free shipping to returning customers.

To ensure your advertising in this stage is most effective, you need to be able to target known online past purchasers of your brand or product.

KPIs to consider: “Where to Buy” site traffic, sales data

All signs are pointing to a big holiday season (and 2018) for the pet industry. As spending increases, so does competition and noise. Brands in the pet space can find, reach, and win in-market pet shoppers by adjusting their advertising strategy for every stage of the consumer decision journey.

For more insights and trends for the holiday shopping season, including a pet-specific infographic, visit our Holiday Headquarters.