At Digilant we are getting into the holiday spirit, and want everyone else to join us. We have put together an infographic and report that gives predictions and highlights trends around consumer behavior for the 2018 holiday shopping season. This report will help advertisers and media buyers gain additional insights for their digital marketing strategies.
Every year it seems as though the holiday sales and promotions start earlier, spending increases and people shift their purchase locations and behavior. All these changes at such an essential part of the year can become overwhelming. Digilant has outlined all the 2018 holiday shopping predictions – from when people are shopping, how to reach them on mobile and how Ecommerce powerhouse Amazon is going to affect this year’s sales and advertising for other retails.
Download the infographic here.
Online Shopping Habits
Online shopping has completely changed everyone’s perception of the purchasing process. Online shopping continues to evolve making it essential for advertisers and marketers to understand the latest trends for each holiday season. In 2017, between the months of November and December consumers spent $108.15 billion online alone. Consumers also spent more than $1 billion online within the 58 days of these two months; a significant increase from the year before. This year, there is the most days possible between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 33 days, making it essential for advertisers to effectively use everyday of the holiday season.
According to digialcommerce360, advertisers should focus their efforts on the “Cyber 5 stretch”, the days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. These days are key to driving incremental holiday dollars. They also stated that 12% of online visits and 14% of transactions for the entire holiday season occurred the week before Christmas. This makes it essential for advertisers to continue their advertising and messaging throughout the entire season as well as make sure that they are targeting the right person in the right place, when they are ready to buy.
Amazon is a DSP platform to consider when planning your holiday media spend. Last year, the online marketplace accounted to 37.53% of total U.S. e-retail sales from November-December. They have dominated online shopping during the holiday season, with expected increases this year – Amazon signs up approximately 200,000 new Prime members per month.
Amazon has not only been successful in dominating the online shopping space, but has also taken attention away from search engines. About half of all product searches now start on Amazon. Their success is not expected to slow down anytime soon; in fact, Amazon is expected to generate 50% of all ecommerce sales by 2021. Sellers on Amazon also benefit from the tools put in place by the marketplace to stand out in the clutter of purchasing possibilities.
If their domination over the holiday season was not impressive enough, this year, Amazon is expanding their product offerings to include full-size fir trees – of course, delivered right to your door. They are not the first brand to start doing so, but such a large scale company selling trees is sure to get consumer attention. This leap by Amazon will elevate their potential for even more growth during the holiday season.
Beyond having product offerings on Amazon, gaining consumer attention through their advertising is essential. Digilant offers Amazon marketing solutions to help clients optimize digital advertising ROI and capitalize on new opportunities that the rapidly growing Amazon advertising platform affords. Reach out to us here to learn more about our Amazon offering.
Want more? Check out part 3 of our Holiday Shopping Insights series here.
There are slightly more women than men that will be shopping this year. Within this group of shoppers, nearly half (47%) of shoppers fall between the ages of 25 and 44. There are a multiple reasons that this age range is dominating shopping this season, however the popularity in toys is greatly influencing this demographic. Obviously toys have always been a gift-favorite, however last year the toy category had 
