Holiday Shopping and the Commerce Experience

Holiday shopping has kicked off earlier than ever this year, jump started by Prime Day moving to mid-October and other mass retailers beginning their winter promotions before Halloween. With the backdrop of a pandemic, ecommerce will experience exceptional growth, too. eMarketer forecasts that retail ecomm sales will increase 35.8% (to $190b), which is an incremental $50b in holiday ecomm sales vs. last year.

Driving the online path to purchase has never been more important in a moment where consumers are hesitant to browse in store, so having the right elements in place are key to conversion not only for this holiday season but also for changing consumer shopping behaviors.

According to the Episerver Holiday Ecommerce Report, 33% of U.S. consumers start their online purchase journey for a specific product on Google, which may seem high until you realize that the same study found that 48% actually begin on Amazon. But where the journey begins and how it ends are two totally different things.

With so many advertisers vying for shoppers’ attention, an effective omnichannel plan will use a cohesive narrative to drive consumer decision making. DTC brands are especially good at this formula. Close attention to the media channels and messaging as well as the content on the media destination are critical to ensuring you have an effective commerce experience.

And those media channels have taken note. Facebook recently rolled out new frictionless commerce ad features to drive a more seamless shopping social commerce experience. What ran as a beta test over the last year is now an ad format available to all advertisers, which makes it easier for advertisers to tap on an image, discover more and go from discovery directly into purchase.

Facebook and Instagram’s new commerce-driven ads

In addition to the shopping tag feature, Facebook is also giving advertiser ways to build audiences against users who’ve demonstrated an interest in a product or brand by saving it, viewing it in shop, or initiating – but not completing – the purchase. As cart abandonment is the kryptonite to ecommerce, the ability to leverage this type of feature is a game-changer.

Even if your business is not set up for shopping directly within a platform, leveraging a carting partner (like SmartCommerce or MikMak) and ensuring your PDP is up to date with content that best tells your product story and relevant ratings and reviews are two levers that can drive conversions.

Velocity Commerce Group can help you identify the best media channels and content to build out your commerce experience. Please get in touch via LinkedIn or e-mail. Let’s talk!