As we step into 2024, the retail industry continues to evolve, adapting to the ever-changing consumer landscape. The challenges and uncertainties of 2020 are now firmly in the rearview mirror, but they have left a lasting impact on how people approach holiday shopping. Recent data from 2023 reveals intriguing shifts in consumer spending habits, transforming the holiday season into a unique battleground for retailers. From a surge in online shopping to a renewed focus on sustainability and conscious consumerism, these trends are reshaping the competitive landscape. In this article, we’ll explore the latest insights and retail best practices that are shaping the competitive landscape as businesses vie for their share of the holiday spending spree.
Marketing campaigns need to adapt, along with everything else this year, and follow retail best practices for COVID-19. This year’s best practices will be clearly different (vs last year), since brands are called to take much more complex decisions, affecting both organizational and strategical aspects of the company. From smaller, more manageable advertising messages to addressing the changing consumer preferences, brands need to customize their holiday marketing message for the times we live through.
Table of Contents
- > Holiday marketing in numbers
- > Holiday marketing and COVID-19: What are the latest trends and industry predictions
- > #11 Creative Retail Best Practices for Effective Holiday Marketing
- > Discover more Retail Best Practices resources
- > Next Step: Discover more useful Holiday Marketing resources
- > Be the Santa of Your Company
Holiday marketing in numbers
- Consumers expect to reduce their holiday spending by 25% this season. McKinsey
- Brand loyalty is faltering as consumers try new, less expensive brands, and of consumers who have tried new brands, 73% plan to continue using them. McKinsey
- 45% of consumers are shopping using their smartphone this holiday season. PwC
- Approximately half of the people that canceled typical travel plans for the holidays plan to spend some of that additional money on gifts. CNBC
- 39% of consumers say that they are willing to spend more on local brands after the pandemic. Globalwebindex
- You can discover even more statistics about holiday marketing in this article of ours.
Holiday marketing and COVID-19: What are the latest trends and industry predictions
Gatherings will be smaller.
People will be meeting in smaller groups instead of throwing large holiday parties this season. This changes the type of decorations required along with the amount that people are willing to spend. Whereas a party for 20 people requires 20 place settings, five gatherings with four people only require four place settings. It’s the small individual changes that will have a large impact on retail spending this holiday season. Marketing should highlight the quality of products over quantity this holiday season.
More events will take place outside.
Because the latest scientific research says that transmission of the virus is less likely in open-air meetings, more holiday gatherings (where weather permits) will take place outdoors than in prior years. This is an opportunity for additional sales of products that would facilitate outdoor gatherings such as outdoor fire pits, tents, lighting, and outdoor furniture.
Corporate events will likely be canceled.
Employers are very cautious about bringing people back into the offices and will likely extend this caution to corporate events. If any of your products might be a substitute for a corporate holiday party, you may want to highlight that in your marketing.
#11 Creative Retail Best Practices for Effective Holiday Marketing
Despite the new challenges this holiday season brings for marketing teams, implementing these creative retail best practices can help ensure a successful holiday sales season.
Retail Best Practice #1: Prepare for Digital-First Holiday Marketing Campaign
Recommended Strategy:
Consumers are no longer starting their shopping by casually browsing through stores. With all the additional safety measurements in place, consumers start shopping experiences online, either on websites, search engines, SMS/Whatsapp/Viber messages or emails. One of the most effective tips is finetuning every single channel for maximum results: use gifs in your VIBER campaigns, optimize your newsletter’s deliverability, add benefit-driven HTML titles to your most important XMAS products categories. Just focus on making 1 essential optimization on your top3 revenue channels and you will be amazed by the results.
Recommended Tools:
Digital holiday marketing campaigns should include holiday website updates, direct email marketing, and targeted advertising.
Cost to Implement: Low
The majority of retail establishments have already made significant investments in their web presence but should continually refine and revise their message based on changing customer attitudes.
Retail Best Practice #2: Prepare a Holiday Crisis Management Scenario
Recommended Strategy:
In 2023, we’ve witnessed firsthand the importance of expecting the unexpected. The year has been marked by a series of unforeseen events that have had a profound impact on the retail landscape. From the persistent threat of war to the rapid evolution of customer preferences, retailers have been navigating a continuously shifting terrain. As we explore the dynamics of the retail industry in 2023, it’s clear that adaptability and preparedness are essential for businesses to thrive in the face of uncertainty.
Recommended Tools:
Retails must be prepared to have additional supplies on hand and have clearly stated policies for employees and consumers. Additionally, consumers should be quickly informed of any changes to their orders. By using marketing to manage expectations, brands can preserve relationships with their customers.
Cost to Implement: Medium
The costs will depend on what preparations have already been made. Keep in mind that clear communication is a relatively cost-effective way to lessen the impact of any future crisis.
Retail Best Practice #3: Create an Omnichannel Holiday Marketing Plan
Recommended Strategy:
Omnichannel holiday marketing plans include all aspects of a retailer’s business, including online and offline channels. By creating a unified message across all potential points of contact, brands build a solid brand image and gain additional insights into customer behavior.
Recommended Tools:
ContactPigeon, or any omnichannel customer engagement platform for retailers
Cost to Implement: Low
There is a small investment in your time to set up the platform and a small learning curve, but these platforms make it easy to manage your omnichannel marketing plan.
Retail Best Practice 4: Create a Specific Holiday Category Section
Recommended Strategy:
Add a holiday section to your retail website and store, if space allows. Even if you are not selling holiday items, you can highlight items that would make excellent gifts or be used for holiday entertaining.
Recommended Tactics:
You should work with your existing website manager to add this additional section (and remove it after the holiday has passed). This should allow you to integrate the new content seamlessly. Check out how to plan a user-friendly category page with these best practices.
Cost to Implement: Low to Medium
The effort required may be depending on the complexity of your website and product offerings.
TIP: Interested in more seasonal best practices?
Discover retail best practices for Valentine’s Day here!
Retail Best Practice #5: Integrate or Create a Digital Loyalty Program to Boost Retention
Recommended Strategy:
Consumers like to feel appreciated by the brands that they frequent. By adding a loyalty card or multiple purchase discounts, consumers will sense that they are appreciated and are not just contributing to your bottom line.
Recommended Tactics:
Loyalty programs can either be managed internally by in-house experts or outsources to companies. If you choose to manage the program internally, ContactPigeon can help you manage the program’s communications.
Cost to Implement: Low to High
Again, the resources required to implement may depend on the complexity and awards provided to customers.
Retail Best Practice #6: Include a Holiday- Themed Freebie with Every Order (Online or Offline)
Recommended Strategy:
Everyone likes getting something for free! This year, more than ever, it’s important to surprise and delight your customers. If you want to take this to the next level, you can make the free gifts collectible or limited editions to encourage repeat visits and orders.
Recommended Tactics:
Work with your marketing team to determine which gifts fit your brand image and then determine the budget.
Cost to Implement: Low to High
The costs will be driven by your predetermined budget. Keep in mind that delighting customers will go a long way this season, and these freebies will probably pay for themselves through customer loyalty and joy.
Retail Best Practice #7: Create and Distribute LOTS of Holiday DIY Content
Recommended Strategy:
The previous years have been spent at home with lots of extra time on everyone’s hands, allowing everyone to explore their do-it-yourself to-do lists. Use this trend to your advantage by providing DIY content to engage your customers.
Recommended Tools:
Canva, or an inhouse or outsourced designer (freelancer)
Cost to Implement: Low
There is a lot of content online, or you can hire a low-cost freelancer to complete this project for you.
Retail Best Practice #8: Consider Growth Via Marketplaces
Recommended Strategy:
Joining other established marketplaces could unlock additional sales channels (such as Amazon, eBay, etc.) to take advantage of these corporations’ holiday budgets and advertising. By selling your products on these marketplaces, you benefit from their traffic, which drives more people to your brand and increases your brand awareness.
Recommended Tactics:
It’s simple to create an account and start posting your products on these sites.
Cost to Implement: Low
The only investment is when it takes you to post the items you want to sell on the marketplace. Also, be cautious of the percentage commission that may cut into your margins.
Retail Best Practice #9: Keep Your Operational Costs as Low as Possible
Recommended Strategy:
With the new lockdown, the store’s sales are expected to be significantly lower than last year, so a retailer should carefully optimize its fixed and variables expenses. This might mean shorter store hours or fewer employees.
Recommended Tactics:
Communication is essential if you are going to change any of your standard operating procedures. You’ll want to make sure that customers are aware of any limitations to your in-store services.
Cost to Implement: Low
This should save you money, but some expenses will be incurred when putting together information and customer communication.
Retail Best Practice #10: Do Data Mining on Your Customer Data
Recommended Strategy:
Analyzing the historical transactional data from the previous Holiday Season and Lockdown #1 can provide invaluable insights and knowledge about your customer base. The more you know about how customers have reacted in the past, the more prepared you will be to handle any customer behavior changes in the future.
Recommended Tools:
ContactPigeon, or any omnichannel customer engagement platform that offers customer behavior tracking and predictions.
Cost to Implement: Medium
This will require the collection and interpretation of large amounts of data over a period of time. The holidays are the best time to start the collection, given the expected increase in overall data volume.
Retail Best Practice #11: Conduct A/B Testing of Messaging
Recommended Strategy:
Create multiple versions of marketing material and track your testing results to determine which message works best.
Recommended Tools:
ContactPigeon, or similar campaign tools retailers. ContactPigeon offers multivariate testing of campaigns, where you can determine the percentage of your contacts to test. When a conclusive result has been reached, the winning template will be delivered to the rest of your contact lists.
Cost to Implement: Medium.
There is an upfront cost in designing multiple types of messages, which can be done internally or externally. The results of the testing may require a data analyst to interpret.
Discover more Retail Best Practices resources
- Retail Best Practices for Valentine’s Day Marketing
- Retail Best Practices: 12 Tactics to Maximize Your Mother’s Day Revenue
Next Step: Discover more useful Holiday Marketing resources
- Building a 360-degree Christmas marketing strategy in retail
- 7 Super Awesome Ho Ho Holiday Marketing Ideas
- The Step By Step Holiday Email Marketing Checklist
- Everything You Need To Know About Holiday Email Marketing
- 58 Fairytale-ish Christmas Email Subject Lines for Holiday
- 24 Holiday Newsletter Ideas to Cheer Up the Season
Be the Santa of Your Company
Your company needs you to deliver results this holiday season, and creative marketing can help you achieve the end of year results you need.
With the current economic condition along with the amount of uncertainty, it’s important that you act now before the start of the retail holiday shopping season to ensure that you are position well to succeed this season.
