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.
Messaging in Media
If your social media feeds and online searches look anything like mine, they’re flooded with holiday sales, ads and product offerings. I started seeing these ads around mid October – long before what most people consider the start of the holiday season, Black Friday weekend. This is a clear indication that holiday shopping in 2018 has started earlier and advertisers need to get on board – with special attention paid to media, or their competition will get more market share by just having that head start.
Last year, in November and December, over 40% of all sales were made on a mobile device. This is projected to increase 50% this year. Because we always carry around our phones, we have the power to make a purchase whenever we want. This makes it essential for advertisers to spread their message in the right way and at the right time. Mobile advertising needs to be engaging in order to stand out during this intense period of time for retailers . Here are six tips for advertisers to be prepared:
- Prioritize the quality of the customer experience
- Maximize on mobile
- Drive multi-channel purchasers
- Make sure your app is ready to go & your team knows how much traffic to expect
- Do not use this time to test our new features, this may potentially hinder the function of the app during such a crucial time
- Anticipate & prepare for risk of any sort
As an advertiser, you need to ensure your programmatic capabilities are aligned to get you the best return on your holiday advertising investments. Multi-channel opportunities are a great way to maintain consumer attention so they don’t stray from your brand. Knowing when a consumer looks as your website or a competitors’ is essential. If you know what they are interested in, you can place an ad on their social media feed with those products or similar ones. This makes the process for purchase much easier, as consumers don’t have to spend time searching but can make a purchase and move on.
When determining your media mix, don’t forget the importance of mobile video. People are 2x more engaged with videos that run on mobile than TV. Mobile video is a great way to reach the 18-29 range as 76% of this demographic watch videos on their smartphones. It is common to see this millenial age range watching videos while commuting to work or school, or even while hanging out with friends. Placing video ads that will reach these mobile phones will strengthen your advertising strategy.
To prepare for a successful holiday season, having a strong digital partner to manage your brand’s digital ad buying is crucial and Digilant is ready to step in to help. Reach out to us here to learn more about our digital media buying solutions and services.
Want more? Check out part 5 of our Holiday Shopping Insights series here.
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.
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.
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 
