Why Amazon Prime Day 2023 Succeeded

Why Amazon Prime Day 2023 Succeeded

by Morgan Reilly Amazon

Are you ready for the next Amazon Prime Day, which will probably happen this fall? Based on the results of the July 11-12 Prime Day, you should be. Amazon reminded everyone that the company is the top dog in e-commerce despite challenges from the likes of TikTok and Walmart. Businesses that prepare for Prime Day properly will benefit.

Amazon Prime Day Results

According to data from Adobe Analytics, the recent two-day event that occurred on July 11 and 12 witnessed a remarkable increase in year-on-year spending, reaching $12.7 billion in the United States, with a surge of 6.1 percent.

During this event, Prime members globally indulged themselves in purchasing over 375 million products, taking advantage of Amazon’s discounted deals and saving an impressive amount of over $2.5 billion.

The average Prime Day spend per order is $56.64, up from $53.14 in the same reporting period on Prime Day 2022, according to data firm Numerator.

What People Bought

Throughout the span of the two-day event, various categories played a significant role in propelling online sales. Notably, appliances accounted for 45 percent of the sales, followed by housekeeping supplies at 28 percent, and electronics at 18 percent. Additionally, there was a noticeable increase in the popularity of apparel, experiencing a growth of 17 percent, and stationery/office supplies, skyrocketing by an impressive 76 percent. These surges were partially fueled by the influx of back-to-school shoppers.

How People Shopped

Consumers exhibited a growing inclination towards adopting flexible approaches in managing their expenditures. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) orders experienced a significant surge on both days of the event. On July 11, BNPL constituted 6.4 percent of online orders, resulting in a remarkable revenue of $461 million. This marked an astounding 19.5 percent increase compared to the corresponding day of last year’s Prime Day event. Similarly, on July 12, BNPL accounted for 6.6 percent of online orders, generating $466 million in revenue and demonstrating a notable growth of 21 percent compared to the second day of last year’s event.

Online sales were predominantly influenced by smartphones, accounting for nearly half of the total sales at 46.5 percent. This figure has seen a growth from the previous year’s 43.7 percent, indicating an upward trend in consumer confidence when it comes to shopping on smaller screens. The increase in smartphone-driven sales can be attributed to both the growing comfort of consumers with mobile shopping experiences and the prevalence of last-minute impulse purchases.

“Prime Day has become of one the biggest e-commerce moments of the year, as consumers latch onto major discounts from a number of different retailers,” said Vivek Pandya, a lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “The record spending so far shows us that consumers are tapping into their inner bargain hunters, stocking up on specific categories such as electronics and apparel while the discounts remain steep.”

Across major marketing channels, affiliates/partners saw the biggest lift when it came to revenue contribution (up 11 percent). Other major contributors were email (up 10 percent), display (up 5 percent) and social (up 4 percent).

How to Prepare

Here are some tactics advertisers should take to prepare themselves for Amazon Prime Day – and start preparing now:

  • Offer exclusive discounts and bundles. Prime Day is all about deals. So make sure you’re offering discounts that will make your products stand out from the competition. You could also offer bundles of products to give customers more value for their money. Participate in Amazon’s Lightning Deals and coupon promotions to drive increased sales and conversions. These limited-time offers can create a sense of urgency and encourage impulse purchases.
  • Re-examine your search campaigns on Amazon. Given how much Prime Day shoppers seek out deals, are your keywords aligned with what value-based shoppers are looking for?
  • Optimize your product listings. Make sure your product listings are optimized for search so that people can easily find your products. This includes using relevant keywords, clear and concise product descriptions, and high-quality images. Consider using Enhanced Brand Content or A+ Content to provide enhanced visuals and detailed product information.
  • Stock up on inventory. Make sure you have enough inventory to meet demand. You don’t want to lose out on sales (and annoy Amazon) because you’re out of stock.
  • Promote your deals on social media and email. Let your existing customers know about your Prime Day deals by promoting them on social media and email. You could also create a dedicated landing page for your Prime Day deals.
  • Track your results. It’s important to track your results so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you improve your strategy for future Prime Day events.
  • Do post-Prime Day follow-up. After Prime Day ends, leverage post-event insights and customer data to retarget potential customers and nurture ongoing relationships. Develop post-Prime Day campaigns, including remarketing efforts and personalized offers, to maintain momentum and drive additional sales.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in Amazon’s world, contact True Interactive. Our experience with Amazon Ads makes us well suited to help your brand succeed all year-round.

Amazon Loses Ground in Social Commerce

Amazon Loses Ground in Social Commerce

by Clare O'Shea Amazon

When it comes to social commerce, Amazon isn’t the only dog in the fight anymore. While Amazon may still be the top product search channel for consumers, it is ceding ground as consumers increasingly turn to social platforms for shopping. In fact, social media is shaping up as a real competitor. 

Less Market Share

Declining numbers tell the story: according to Insider Intelligence, in Q1 2023, 56 percent of U.S. adults started their product search on Amazon, a drop from the 63 percent evidenced in Q1 2022. So where are consumers initiating product searches instead? One need look no further than platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The defection from Amazon is currently a generational phenomenon that skews young: a February 2023 GWI survey reveals that for Gen Z product research, social networks have lapped search engines annually since 2020. In the United States, Gen Z is definitely the biggest group turning to social. As Insider Intelligence points out, 43 percent of Gen Z uses TikTok to search products online. By contrast, only 2 percent of Baby Boomers do so.

Money Talks

When it comes to actually making purchases on social platforms, Gen Z again leads the way. As a recent Capgemini survey points out, influencers introduced nearly 50 percent of Gen Z adults to a new brand or product in the six months prior to the survey’s publication; almost one-third of them went on to purchase that product.

Story of a Social App

Snap’s foray into shopping offers a glimpse into the real challenges Amazon faces hanging on to its share of the social commerce pie. In March 2023, Snap announced the launch of a new business unit, called ARES, to help retailers use—and make money from—AR and AI shopping tools.

According to The Verge, AR Enterprise Services (ARES) will furnish retailers with a suite of tools that will make it easy for consumers to virtually try on products like clothing, sunglasses, and shoes  — from home. On a practical level, Shopping Suite features allow users to shop and make purchase decisions just as they might in a brick-and-mortar store. For example, a shopper can upload a photo of themselves, then see how a product looks on them, in real time, at home, with that fresh cup of coffee still hot from the kitchen on hand.

Other ARES tools provide recommendations, based on body size and shape, to help ensure shoppers get the right size and fit on the first try. The goal: reduced return rates, which translates into a win/win for both consumers and retailers. Finally, a 3D Viewer tool allows shoppers to examine products from different angles — again, from the comfort of home. According to Snap, more than 300 customers, including Gobi Cashmere and women’s clothing/fashion retailer Princess Polly, have embraced various Shopping Suite features.

More to Come

In the face of shopping tools such as those touted by Snap, Amazon will likely continue to feel the squeeze. TikTok appears to be a particularly strong competitor for the tech behemoth. As a February 2023 Bizrate/Insider Intelligence survey indicates, nearly 20 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 shopped (and dropped cash) on TikTok in the past month.

And the prediction is that this shopping trend will only intensify: Insider Intelligence forecasts that TikTok will enjoy an uptick in social buyers in 2023—a jaw-dropping 9.6 million, in fact. That’s more than the net increase of Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram combined. 

All This Despite the Drama

Advertisers are certainly paying attention. And even though there’s been talk of a straight-up ban of TikTok, marketers are still spending there. As Ben Jankowski, the former head of global media at Mastercard Inc., shared with The Wall Street Journal, “A lot of marketers are getting really good value out of TikTok and if something is performing really well, marketers are typically super slow to try to find alternatives.” And TikTok, by beta-testing search ads, is making it hard for advertisers to ignore the promise inherent in the platform’s 150 million American users.

Contact True Interactive

If Amazon is currently being invited to share the wealth when it comes to social commerce, that only means more opportunities for marketers to explore. Eager to get a better handle on social shopping? Contact us. We can help.

Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/YddMIRck34I

 

Why the NFL on Amazon Prime Is a Victory for Connected TV

Why the NFL on Amazon Prime Is a Victory for Connected TV

by Tim Colucci Amazon

For decades, watching NFL games on television has meant gathering in front of a TV set and watching a game on one of the major networks. NFL games have been events that vanquish the competition. Featured programming such as Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and Monday Night Football have dominated viewer ratings. All of this is still the case. But how we watch football is changing.

On September 15, the NFL officially entered a new era of television broadcasting when the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers took the field for Thursday Night Football. Instead of televising the game on an established linear TV network, the NFL streamed the match-up on Amazon Prime as part of a $13 billion, 11-year deal with Amazon.

The game marked the NFL’s official embrace of streaming. It also meant that to watch TNF going forward, football fans would need to sign up for Amazon Prime, which is Amazon’s premium service costing $139 annually. And so far, it looks like fans are willing to pony up. According to an internal Amazon memo, the September 15 broadcast drew a record number of Prime sign-ups for a year-hour period.

Given the popularity of the NFL – easily the most dominant brand on TV based on viewer ratings – the streaming agreement has significant ramifications for advertisers. Notably, this is a victory for connected TV, which means watching TV content through a device such as Roku or Amazon Fire. Many people refer to connected TV as over-the-top (OTT) TV, which refers to streaming content directly over the internet instead of cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms. Although technically the two terms differ – with connected TV referring specifically to the device people use to stream content – for all intents and purposes, they are the same. Whatever you want to call it, connected TV has arrived: streaming is now more popular than cable. It’s no longer optional for businesses to have an OTT advertising strategy.

Connected advertising is similar to linear TV advertising because both formats rely obviously on video. But connected TV is different in many important ways. For one thing, advertisers need to understand how to create video content that will reach viewers across a variety of viewing devices in addition to TV screens, and connected TV ads are competing with multiple content streams. (You can watch TNF on a laptop, mobile phone, or gaming console with multiple screens open.)

And each streaming service and connected TV device (ranging from Amazon Fire to Roku) offer their own ad units. For example, Amazon Ads, which is Amazon’s fast-growing advertising business, offers ad units such as inline ads (which appear as selectable rows in each major browsing section of Fire TV) and feature rotator (a carousel-like ad placement appearing above the fold of the screen).

Ahead of the launch of TNF on Amazon Prime, Danielle Carney, Amazon Ads’ Head of NFL Sales, said:

We’re offering myriad opportunities to get involved with TNF, catering to brands’ range of needs. Our premier sponsorships give advertisers the ability to elevate their brands during the pre-game, pre-kick, halftime, and post-game shows. But that’s not all. We’re continuing to innovate and explore other potential sponsorships and packages that will enable brands tell their stories in unique ways through our surround, alternate feeds, and ancillary programming. Our newly built creative sports team will help customize the experience for our partners.

Outside of sponsorships, brands can use Streaming TV ads to reach fans throughout games on Prime Video and Twitch. Like our sponsorships, these video ads are backed by Amazon’s first-party insights, bringing more value and insight into campaign performance for brands.

To succeed, though, Amazon Prime needs to deliver viewing numbers to advertisers. Reportedly, Amazon has told advertisers that it expects to see nightly viewership of about 12.5 million people for its inaugural season of TNF. We’ll soon see. Amazon agreed for Nielsen to track ratings for TNF, and ratings for the September broadcast are still forthcoming.

Amazon Prime also needs to deliver a desirable experience. Amazon promises alternative ways to watch TNF, including Dude Perfect, a popular trick-shot comedy group. Amazon Fire TV and Alexa are bringing new features to NFL fans as well, such as trivia and real-time access to statistics (which should appeal to Fantasy Football devotees). Early fan reactions to the September 15 broadcast were mixed, and it looks like Amazon has some technical issues with content buffering to fix. Of course, no one can predict the quality of an actual NFL game, but Amazon can certainly deliver on the overall experience. Let’s see how Amazon adapts.

The broadcast is also significant for another reason: a victory for first-party data, which is the information that businesses collect directly from their customers. Amazon will use first-party data to sell targeted ads to help drive revenue for the games. This is huge. Right now, third-party audience data is withering away thanks to Apple’s and Google’s privacy measures. Businesses that figure out how to monetize first-party data enjoy an enormous advantage. Amazon has already become the third biggest ad platform in the world (behind Google and Meta) by using first-party data to sell targeted ads. The ascendance of first-party data is one reason why retailer-based ad networks have become so popular.

Bottom line: what is your advertising game plan for connected TV?

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with connected TV advertising, contact True Interactive. We have deep experience with this format.

Where Amazon, Google, and Meta Are Headed

Where Amazon, Google, and Meta Are Headed

by Clare O'Shea Amazon Google Meta

Technology earnings week is always watched closely. The rising and falling fortunes of Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft have a direct impact on adjacent industries such as retail, advertising, and marketing. During a topsy turvy year such as 2022, the most recent quarterly earnings announcements of the Big Tech firms were followed especially closely. And here are some of the highlights from the Big Three of online advertising – Amazon, Google, and Meta — with implications for online advertising:

  • Amazon beat analysts’ estimates and enjoyed a strong quarter with the exception of its core retail business. The big news was the continued strong growth of Amazon Ads, which is Amazon’s advertising business that has quickly challenged Google and Meta for leadership of the online ad market. Ad revenue climbed 18% in the period for its most recent quarter. All told, Amazon Ads raked in $8.76 billion in the second quarter. Notably, in its earnings announcement, Amazon highlighted the recent launch of Amazon Marketing Stream, which “automatically delivers hourly Sponsored Products campaign metrics to advertisers or agencies through the Amazon Ads API.” This is a sign that Amazon is developing ad tech data and marketing services, which is a direct challenge to Google. What it means: the success of Amazon Ads dovetails with the ascendance of a more privacy-focused era. Apple in particular has initiated privacy controls that make it more difficult for advertisers to target consumers with ads that use third-party data. Amazon Ads is beyond the reach of such privacy controls because Amazon Ads is based on first-party data that Amazon collects from its customers. Amazon is not the only retail business building its own ad network. But it’s the leader. We expect more businesses will choose Amazon Ads as an advertising platform, and we have developed services accordingly.
  • Meta suffered its first-ever revenue drop for the quarter. The reasons are complicated. First off, TikTok is threatening the popularity of Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta), and Meta’s response to TikTok, Reels, doesn’t generate money as efficiently as Instagram Stories and the main news feed. Meta has also reeled from the impact of Apple’s privacy controls. What it means: Meta is in a time of transition – but never count out Meta. The company is investing heavily into the emerging metaverse, which is dragging its profits down but may boost Meta over the long run. And although Reels are a work in progress, progress is being made. As analysts at JMP wrote, “With Meta making progress with Reels while AI improves recommendations across content and advertising, we expect growth to rebound from current levels while the company is more disciplined in its cost structure.” And, overall, the company’s base of monthly active users continues to increase. The real threat to Meta in the near term: how well the company can rebound from the threat of Apple’s privacy controls. The long-term threat: how well Meta can attract and keep Gen Z users.
  • Google is sitting pretty. Alphabet’s search ad sales grew more than 13 percent in Q2 2022 to $40.7 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $40.2 billion. Search, of course, is Google’s bread-and-butter business, and Google’s investments into its core search ad units are paying off as advertisers lean into performance marketing tactics amid economic uncertainty. But life isn’t all rosy at Google. At YouTube, ad sales rose 0nly 5 percent after jumping 84 percent in the same period a year ago. This reflects the impact of TikTok’s popularity. What it means: Google is going to flourish in 2022 and 2023 especially as advertisers weather economic uncertainty. Google is a safe bet, and Google continues to develop new ad units that enhance its performance marketing capabilities. Watch for Google to continue to push artificial intelligence-related services and tools that automate online advertising — while managing the increasingly thorny challenge of developing alternatives to third-party cookies, which the company had said it would do by 2022 and now is rescheduling for 2024.

What Advertisers Should Do

  • Keep a diversified ad portfolio across the Big Three: Amazon, Google, and Meta. If you are satisfied with the results you are seeing, don’t let Meta’s challenges scare you away. But do a gut check with your agency partner on how your ads are performing.
  • Work closely with your agency partners to understand the impact of privacy controls, especially from Apple.
  • If Gen Z is an important audience, take a closer look at TikTok. TikTok looms large as it challenges YouTube and Meta especially.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Three Takeaways from Amazon Prime Day 2022

Three Takeaways from Amazon Prime Day 2022

by Morgan Reilly Amazon

Amazon has announced that Amazon Prime Day 2022 was the biggest Prime Day Event ever. Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide during Prime Day 2022, which took place July 12-13. Amazon did not disclose sales results, but the 300 million items purchased was up from 250 million in 2021, and research firm Numerator estimates that spend per household neared $200, up from the high $150’s in years past. This is an impressive measure especially amid soaring inflation. So, who is buying all this stuff, what are they buying, and how are they buying? This is a significant question. The answers give advertisers clues about online purchasing behavior during inflationary times. Well, Numerator took a close look at the numbers. And they say a lot.

Women Drive eCommerce

High income, suburban women were top Prime Day 2022 shoppers. Compared to Prime Day 2021, this year’s shoppers were marginally older, and slightly more likely to come from middle or low income rural households.

Women dominate Prime Day

These figures validate why brands market to women. Women are responsible for most purchases in a typical household, and since there are 3.9 billion women in the world, marketers are eager to gain as much of their spend as possible. But marketers need to be mindful to tailor their advertising to women – for example by respecting their diversity and steering clear of tired themes (such as always depicting moms as caretakers and nurturers).

Amazon Wins by Tapping into Its Customer Base

95 percent of households knew it was Prime Day before shopping, and most learned about the event directly from Amazon. Among those who were aware of the sale, 41 percent say it was the primary reason they shopped on Amazon and another 42 percent said it was a contributing factor. And Amazon dominated the list of most popular products sold.

Amazon dominates Prime Day

These numbers underscore the power of Amazon to capitalize on its built-in customer base by promoting big ticket events to them. Amazon has successfully developed hundreds of in-house products and brands, and the company knows how to market them to Prime members.

This will pressure businesses to get out in front of big-tent sales such as Back-to-School, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday even more so than they have, especially by re-marketing and advertising to their own customers. This is especially true during inflationary times. One third of Prime Day shoppers waited to buy something until Prime Day, with another 17 percent using the event as an opportunity to stock up on sale items. On the flip side, over a fourth of Prime Day shoppers passed up a good deal on a non-necessity. Businesses will double down on special sale days in 2022, knowing that their customers may very hold out for promotional specials to maximize savings.

It’s also worth noting that Amazon didn’t dominate every product sold, with products such as Dawn Dish Soap, Frito-Lay, and Tide doing well. Businesses have learned that it’s better to join Amazon than to try and beat the retailing giant. And retailers who tried to compete with Amazon by creating their own quasi-Prime Day events did not succeed: although 54 percent of Amazon Prime customers considered buying from other retailers during Prime Day (particularly Walmart and Target) only 24 percent actually made purchases elsewhere in addition to Amazon, with about one-in-ten still considering a non-Amazon purchase at the time they were surveyed.

This is why Amazon Ads is succeeding: the company has monetized all the data it collects about its customers and developed attractive ad units for companies that want to reach them. The advertising arm of Amazon achieved 32 percent year-over-year growth in 2021, which amounted to $31.2 billion in revenue. Amazon Ads will continue to be a huge growth engine for Amazon, as more businesses try to reach the customers searching for things to buy on Amazon every day. (Amazon is now bigger than Google for product searches.)

Live Stream Shopping Is on the Rise

Amazon noted that Amazon Live Prime Day streams had more than 100 million views. Thousands of users hosted livestreams during this year’s event, Amazon said. Livestreaming makes it possible for advertisers to sell products via live demonstrations and promotions. Live shopping is especially big in China: according to eMarketer, live shopping accounted for nearly 12 percent of China’s retail ecommerce sales in 2021. Coresight Research estimates the live-stream shopping market will reach $20 billion in 2022 and grow to roughly $65 billion by 2023. Several livestream platforms have proliferated. But livestream shopping needs to be done well, with great production values and authentic, engaging personalities to connect with shoppers. This is why businesses are turning to ready-made platforms such as Amazon Live.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in Amazon’s world, contact True Interactive. Our experience with Amazon Ads makes us well suited to help your brand succeed all year-round.

Amazon’s Next Frontier: Local Advertising

Amazon’s Next Frontier: Local Advertising

by Jessica Skopek Amazon

Amazon recently announced for the first time just how big Amazon Ads has become. And the number is very big. As in $31.2 billion. Amazon said in its in 2021 earnings announcement that Amazon Ads had achieved 32 percent year-over-year growth, which includes sales of advertising services to sellers, vendors, publishers, authors, and others, through programs such as sponsored ads, display, and video advertising.

$31.2 billion is not quite the size of Meta’s and Google’s ad businesses. By comparison, Google achieved $209.5 billion in ad revenue for its most recent fiscal year, and Meta achieved roughly $115 billion for the same time period. But Amazon Ads eclipses Microsoft, Pinterest, and Snap, and the company has earned a place alongside Google and Meta as one of the big three online advertising platforms.

And now, it looks like Amazon plans to get bigger in an untapped market: location-based advertising. Business Insider reported recently that Amazon is building a local ad business by advertising positions for a Local Ads team in major cities such as Chicago and New York. Apparently Amazon Ads will offer a slate of ad units, including streaming TV ads and a demand-side platform that sells ads off Amazon’s website. (Note that Amazon generates the lion’s share of its ad revenue from search ads that appear on the Amazon website; but Amazon has invested more in ad tech to get bigger ad budgets from advertisers.)

This is an intriguing development, to say the least. Location-based advertising capitalizes on the fact that local searches by consumers are wildly popular. This is a big reason why hyper local sites such as Nextdoor have achieved strong growth: people typically look for things to buy at stores close to their homes. So, businesses have a strong motivation to rank well in those “near me” searches, and of course advertising can amplify their presence. Meta and Google both offer strong location-based ad services, but lately Meta has taken a financial hit because of the impact of Apple’s Application Tracking Transparency privacy controls, which limit the effectiveness of ad targeting, including location-based ad targeting.

According to a Deutsche Bank report from 2021, 75-percent of Meta’s advertising revenue came from small businesses. Meta could be vulnerable if Amazon’s plans are rolled out. And Amazon doesn’t have to worry about Apple’s privacy controls. The company can sell ads based on first-party data, or data that people on Amazon share when they search and purchase (Apple’s privacy controls do not affect first-party data). Now, consider the fact that Amazon operates brick-and-mortar businesses such as Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, which rely on location-based advertising. An Amazon location-based ad service could benefit the company’s own stores.

But that’s not all. Just as Amazon sells online ads to merchants, the company is apparently banking on the ability to do that for retailers, automotive dealers, restaurants, and other merchants that need to be present in local search results.

For now, Amazon will continue to grow its ad business mostly through Amazon.com, where companies pay to be listed as a “sponsored product” high up in the search results. Amazon also offers video commercials and ads on Amazon’s FireTV device. Amazon Ads also helps brands with online advertising on sites that it does not own. And Amazon has developed advertising in devices and platforms such as Twitch.

It will be interesting to see how this development plays out especially with Walmart leveraging its own small but growing ad business that capitalizes on the company’s online/offline presence. Walmart could be a strong alternative to Amazon.

We recommend that advertisers manage the online ad solutions that are most relevant to their own customers’ journeys from awareness to purchase. Keep an eye on Amazon. The company has built incredible momentum, and an increasingly privacy-centric landscape favors the growth of its ad business.

Contact True Interactive

At True Interactive, we monitor new ad products all the time and help our clients prosper amid the evolving landscape. Contact us to learn how we can help you. Learn more about our Amazon Ads services here.

Consumer Shopping Trends for the 2021 Holiday Season

Consumer Shopping Trends for the 2021 Holiday Season

by Clare O'Shea Amazon Google Social media

What does the holiday shopping season hold for businesses? We have already heard plenty about the potential problems that a global supply chain crisis will pose. They include product shipping delays, bare shelves, and higher prices. But how are consumers planning to research and buy as the shopping season kicks into full gear? A recently conducted webinar by ChannelAdvisor, “Navigating Online Consumer Behavior: 2021 E-Commerce Trends and Forecasts,” provided some answers.

ChannelAdvisor and Dynata surveyed 5,000 global consumers to learn how they are shopping this holiday season, including 1,000 U.S. consumers. ChannelAdvisor also relied on secondary research from sources such as eMarketer. Here are some major takeaways:

E-Commerce Is Exploding

eMarketer data

 

Chart showing people shopping more

E-commerce has accelerated by two-to-three years as a percentage of total retail sales. ChannelAdvisor says that the accelerated pace will continue for the next few years. That’s because Covid-19 forced more shoppers online. Nearly 60 percent of consumers are shopping online more frequently than before the pandemic, and 32 percent of U.S. consumers have more confidence shopping online than they did before the pandemic. A whopping 58 percent of consumers are spending more time on Amazon.

Key takeaway: businesses should expect the major ad platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok to integrate advertising and commerce more aggressively. We recently saw Google make it easier for shoppers to find products through visual search and display. TikTok continues to launch new shopping features. It’s important that businesses capitalize on these opportunities to capture revenue in these moments when people are searching and browsing on digital.

Get Ready for a Strong Holiday Shopping Season

A chart showing people shopping online

Holiday shopping is increasing in 2021

More than half of U.S. consumers will shop online more than before the pandemic. By contrast, 38 percent of U.S. consumers said they’d shop more online when they were surveyed in May 2020. And 37 percent of U.S. consumers expect to do more holiday shopping online compared to 2020. Only 6 percent of shoppers will shop less.

This finding is not surprising. We saw that even during the hardest days of the pandemic when the world faced economic uncertainty, consumers were willing to open up their pocketbooks and spend. But as ChannelAdvisor noted, much of that spending happened online.

Key takeaway: it’s going to be a busy holiday shopping season, and savvy advertisers are already ramping up their holiday shopping advertising. According to Deloitte, consumers will spend 9 percent more this holiday season compared to 2020. A new survey from JLL says that consumers plan to spend an average of $870 per person on holiday expenses this year, a 25.4 percent increase from last year. Consumers are ready to shop. On the downside, if the global shipping crisis is as bad as economists say it’s going to be, those consumers may experience the disappointment of product shortages. So advertisers are encouraging people to shop sooner while inventory is in stock.

Amazon and Google Dominate Product Research and Purchase

 

Research online

Purchase online

Amazon is the Number One destination for people to research product: 41 percent use Amazon to research products. Google, though, is a strong second place finisher. Amazon has built strong trust because when people are checking reviews, prices, and product inventory, Amazon gives them one easy place to do all that. During the holiday shopping season, even more consumers will do research on Amazon, and  65 percent will purchase on Amazon.

Key takeaway: capitalizing on Amazon Advertising products is a must if you want your brand to be visible when shoppers are doing deep product research. But don’t shift your ad budget from Google if you’re already a Google Ads customer. A two-pronged approach works best.

Social Media Is More Important for Younger Audiences

 

chart showing Instagram usage

People buying on social

Social is the key research channel for younger audiences. 53 percent of 18-to-25 year olds have researched products on Instagram. 51 percent have discovered products they purchased on social media sites. Facebook remains a strong source of product research for 26-to-35 year olds. Meanwhile, 30 percent of 26-to-45 year olds will do the majority of their holiday purchasing on social sites.

Key takeaway: although social media sites lag far behind Amazon and Google for product research, they index high for Millennial and Gen Z shoppers. Given the popularity of Instagram as a shopping destination, it’s important that advertisers capitalize on Instagram ad products such as Instagram Shop to reach younger shoppers. Essentially, Instagram ad products make it possible for businesses to turn posts and stories into ads. Instagram also makes it possible to create ads across Instagram and Facebook, which sounds very efficient – but remember that what works on Instagram might not be as effective on Facebook because Facebook appeals to a slightly older audience.

For more insight into holiday shopping trends, read a recently published True Interactive post, “How Retailers Can Prepare for the Holiday Shopping Season.”

Contact True Interactive

To maximize the value of your holiday shopping ad campaigns, contact True Interactive. We help our clients create effective online advertising all year-round, including the holiday season, and we understand the nuances of creating effective holiday ad campaigns.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash