This holiday season will be setting historic records
oktober 6, 2020
With Black Friday kicking of the holiday shopping season, many e-commerse businesses are planning their holiday season campaigns. The past years’ holiday season sales have been increasing for each year and 2021 will hardly be an exception.
As the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing precautions have changed the way consumers behave, this holiday season will definitely be unique. Many are asking how this will affect Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas shopping.
Covid-19’s impact on e-commerce
It’s hard to miss that the coronavirus has changed how consumers behave online. With social distancing regulations (or recommendations) in place, more people are avoiding large stores and retail outlets. An increasing amount of consumers have taken to online shopping as their main channel for consumption.
In fact, the coronavirus has accelerated the shift to e-commerce by 5 years. This shift was happening before Covid-19, but because of the virus, 2021 is expected to see a 20% YoY increase in e-commerse growth.
The increase of revenue for e-commerce brands is partly due to the common online shopper’s online activity, but there is also something unique for 2021. Half of Baby Boomers have increased their online shopping and due to many avoiding physical stores many are now using it as their primary shopping channel.
People who have been nudged to new online behavior won’t go back to pre-coronavirus habits. This suggests that the online holiday shopping season will see new records.
Holiday Season Shopping 2021
The classic lines outside department stores starting from 5 AM on Black Friday are unlikely due to social distancing. Black Friday being stopped by the virus is hardly a possibility – but those expecting holiday shopping, as usual, will be mistaken.
According to a Google report, shoppers do not plan to significantly change their holiday spending compared to 2019, despite the effects of Covid-19. One thing that seems to change however is the number of people planning to do their holiday shopping online. 66% of shoppers anticipate that they will increase their purchases online during the 2020 holiday season.
Consumers will be shopping more online – that seems to be as clear as day at this point. The survey also found that, even though more shopping will be online, consumers don’t plan to spend less on their holiday shopping than normal. This means that the holiday shopping season looks to be as busy as ever, and more hectic than ever when it comes to ecommerce. Online retailers will need to be prepared for probably the highest demand ever witnessed.
Jonathan Olsson
Head of Marketing
