Where Your Customers Will Be Shopping This Holiday Season

Now is the time that marketers are developing their strategy and 

tactics for the upcoming holiday shopping season. This three-part 

blog series is my gift to all of my retail marketing friends. Today 

I will review: online shopping, brick–and-mortar and gift cards.

As a retail marketer, your best bet is to evaluate last year’s marketing 

strategies and tactics to determine what worked and what failed, then 

ask yourself and your team, “Why did this work? Why did this fail?”

Online Shopper

Last year, a whopping $35.3 billion of revenue was generated via 

e-commerce a 15% increase from 2010. Projections for this year’s 

online sales should be even higher, as the economy continues to 

get stronger and consumers’ familiarity and comfort levels with 

online shopping continue to increase. 

Tip: Include a bounce-back coupon inside your shipping box, and 

be sure your offer is compelling so the consumer actually wants to 

use it.

Brick-and-Mortar Shopper 

Between December 1st and December 24^th  consumer retail spending 

rose 4.7% over the same time period in 2010. Sales revenue for the 

week ending December 24th was $44 billion, 14.8% higher than the 

same time period in 2010. These powerful sales figures prove that 

customers prefer to do the majority of their holiday shopping in

brick-and-mortar stores.

Tip:  Now is the time to splurge on your in-store marketing spending.  

Omni-channel marketing will give you the most bang for your buck-pair 

smart in-store marketing with eye-catching merchandising, and make sure 

you are properly staffed so customers do not have to wait in long lines.

  

The Gift Card Shopper

The average consumer spends nearly $140 on gift cards during the 

holiday season, which is a 3.4% increase over 2010. Gift cards
represent18% of all gift purchases.

Tip: Sprinkle gift cards throughout your stores and have your 

employee’s upsell your customers by offering a gift card during 

check out. Provide free shipping on gift card purchases for your 

online customers.

  

Clearly, shoppers prefer the in-person shopping experience during 

the holidays, but online shoppers certainly are not to be overlooked, 

and gift card purchases are icing on the cake. Create strategies for all 

three so your holidays will shine.  Next, I’ll take a look at the different 

methods for effectively reaching holiday shoppers. Stay tuned.

Please share any tips or advice can you add?

Sources: ICSC-Goldman Sachs survey, ShopperTrak research, BMO Capital Markets

Responsys, comscore, IBM Coremetrics Benchmark study, moneyland.com