As the holiday season approaches, we all are gleaming in happiness. The time for celebration is here. We all are celebrating many events including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve.
First of all, what exactly is the meaning of holiday season? In the western culture, holiday season means yearly repetitive period that runs from November to early January. It is celebrated in many Western and other countries, especially in United States and Canada.
What we are all looking forward to is holiday season shopping, yearend festivity and Black Friday sales etc. This spirit of festivity which is much needed especially for this year 2024.
All these events combined give us a Holiday shopping season that we all love to celebrate every year. So, custom web development enables many businesses in appealing more customers through holiday season and summer festivity.
How the Holiday Season affects Online Shopping & Sales?
Nowadays, COVID-19 is impacting us all where we are confined to minimal activities outside our homes. However, the trend of using websites, and mobile apps has risen. Because, now we are more reliant on staying connected and purchasing online.
Currently, e-commerce industry has picked up and people will not lose out on continuing online purchases. Since the requirement of holiday season is to send gifts to one another. Therefore, everyone will remain “loyal” to the spirit of festivity and send out gifts that can be couriered.
- The Favored Medium
- Specialized and Customized
- The sooner the better
- Credibility through Ads
- Get going with Amazon
- Build custom eCommerce solution
Now, we explore these factors in detail.
The Favored Medium
When it comes to holiday shopping spree, users are preferring desktop and PCs to make the purchases. In fact, 33% users prefer desktops where they can access websites to browse through product catalogues while mobile apps are 15% in usage. So, if you thought advertising doesn’t work, then you are wrong.
It is time to think about social media advertising by putting up ads on Facebook, and Instagram. These are the top two social networking websites for engaging users and getting noticed.
Think about it, all the latest brands, trends and fashionista are part of the Facebook and Instagram crowd. If you are there in front of the relevant audience. Then definitely interested users are likely to click on the ad to have them routed to your website.
As you keep observing the online sales and shopping trends in 2024. You are aware that users are equally comfortable to open an ad through Google or an organic listing.
Specialized and Customized
When we think about holiday shopping – we want to be specific about the shops and items we want to buy. Now that we are using internet to do the shopping for us. We want to get specialized products that suit our requirements with holiday discounts.
That’s how companies and businesses are being smart by providing very target-specific product ads. This helps them in capturing the right audience at the right time.
It is in essence, the crux of advertising where you want to allow users to notice your ad. So that you can be in front of the right audience easily.
The sooner the better
Now, let’s take a look at consumers and their shopping behavior patterns. We observe that majority of users are early birds with 37% of users in this bracket. This means they like to start off on their shopping a month before the holiday season.
So, this gives them plenty of chance to even catch up on Black Friday deals. Some are even eager than this lot, with 40% of users starting their purchases 2-3 months prior to this.
eRetail is getting all the attention this year with such a huge percentage of users. They have already started off on their shopping before the actual holiday events take place.
Credibility through Ads
It is important to understand that persistency is the key. Businesses want users to trust them amid 2024, then keep going at advertising.
You may not see results at the start of the first month. But statistics prove that consistency proves helpful. If users see your ad in between 1-3 times, they are 50% more likely to click on your ad.
However, 30% of users still take their time to see your ad before they click on you. Keep going, make sure you are being noticed even if it seems unlikely. As the holiday shopping spree continues, users will get inventive and more prone to explore their options.
Get going with Amazon
Next we discuss the elephant in the room – Amazon. It is the go-to-place for all of us to explore products under a wide umbrella. Whatever you need, it is right there and so easy to use too, right?
That’s why Amazon remains as a top contender for users to come on and shop at. North America is all for it with a 43.4% sales increase in second quarter for 2020. This also shows that users are supporting the upward trend for online shopping.
If you are a relatively new business looking to sustain your existence in 2024. Then it’s not a bad idea to affiliate yourself with Amazon that can help you remain afloat.
Build custom eCommerce solution
This brings us to the question of whether you should have your own eCommerce development solution or not? It is little tricky to answer this one as it depends on your company’s current situation, magnitude and overall finances.
If you are a start-up just figuring out how to remain in business. Then it’s best you associate yourself with shopping cart solution that can help you keep going till times get better.
However, if you are relatively established business; then you can bank on having custom website that showcases your products. But always remember to advertise to boost branding, improve sales and drive business growth during 2024.
In case, you are an established business with a website and are having good profitability margin this year. Then yes, go for a mobile app, to open another gateway to your business.
Conclusion
What one thing Coronavirus has taught us is to remain safe while continuing work. Although, there is nothing like that sense of excitement when you rush to retail stores or shopping malls. However, we have to remain safe and away from any physical contact that disturbs our social distancing norms.
Consequently, holiday season brings out the best in all of us. We are in a celebration mode where we want to embrace the joy and festivity around us. So, we want to rejoice with our loved ones and friends.
Shopping will continue but a little differently with 56% of users picking up on online shopping. That means all those holiday discounts and sales will be taken advantage online. Hence, eCommerce platforms will keep buzzing with the holiday season music and mirth.
Are you looking to ride the holiday wave and get users to purchase your products but don’t know how? Talk to Techliance today to help you in getting the most out of this time of the year. And yes, Happy Holidays to you and your family & friends.
