Criteo has presented a study that exposes the main trends of the peak shopping season: Black Friday and Christmas. In addition to trends, this work includes some recommendations for this Black Friday, where the key to a good positioning is to anticipate and schedule campaigns in advance.
According to Criteo’s global retail data, consumers are expected to maintain consistent shopping habits and e-commerce to remain strong globally throughout the year. Thus, e-commerce sales were significantly higher in July 2021 than their pre-pandemic levels: + 24% globally.
For its part, advance purchases will be driven by constant commerce. Generally, the consumer is thinking about the next purchase while they are purchasing a product or service and customers begin to see the products on the retailer’s website 17 days before buying it on Black Friday.
Before last year’s peak shopping season, more than half (53%) of surveyed consumers said they had recently discovered new ways to shop online – such as click and collect or in-app purchases – and would continue to do so.
The data shows that product discovery will be made in all channels, with search engines (39%) and physical stores (33%) being the most used by consumers to discover new products or services. It is followed by branded websites or apps (32%), retailer websites or apps (29%), and online ads (26%), gaining ground.
Final moment
Stores are also essential at the final time of purchase. The data shows that if stores are open, consumers will spend more. In addition to being influential in the discovery phase, stores are critical at the end of the purchase funnel, when consumers are ready to buy. In Europe, after the end of lockdown in 2021, sales started to increase. The biggest rebound in-store sales occurred the week of July 4, coinciding with the sales: store sales increased 338% and general retail sales increased 287%, while online sales increased 7% compared to the first four weeks of March.
The latest trend, and one that is booming this season, is video ads. Viewing via streaming services, publisher websites, social media, cable TV, and video game streaming accelerated in 2020 as consumers sought new ways to stay entertained at home. 45% of viewers say that streaming video has helped them find new products and services and 33% say they have been influenced in their purchasing decisions.
To be impactful, marketers must focus on creating an audience-based advertising strategy and setting aside their channel-by-channel plans. In this way, when campaigns are planned and the target audiences are clear, you can successfully attract them and drive results across all channels.
Finally, it is essential to activate commerce media campaigns such as Discovery, Consideration, or Conversion to drive results, regardless of the channel. In this way, consumers will be able to choose and control where, when, and how they want to interact with the company and buy through the medium of their choice.
