The holiday shopping season is here, and it’s go-time for retailers. From Halloween through New Year’s Eve, consumers are primed to spend big.
The National Retail Federation (NRF), predicts a sales boost of 2.5% to 3.5% compared to 2023, with holiday spendings projected to hit $989 billion. Shoppers are already getting started, too; 27% have begun their holiday shopping in October, and plenty more are waiting for those big November and December deals, according to Salsify.
So, where are people spending the most? According to eMarketer, Food and Beverage is set to be the strongest category, driven by the rising costs of dining out, which have pushed more consumers toward at-home options. Followed closely by Health and personal care, and Apparel, footwear, and accessories.
Additionally, small-ticket categories are expected to outpace the growth of larger-ticket items, indicating a shift in consumer spending preferences.
The predicted growth brings a wave of optimism for businesses looking to cash in on holiday sales. However, capturing attention during this busy time can be quite challenging.
Here’s a quick checklist of effective marketing strategies to boost your chances of success!
- Understand Consumer Behavior
With users engaging with brands across multiple platforms, understanding user intent is key to bridging the gap between interest and purchase.
The three commonly known user intents are:
- Informational Intent: Users with this intent are constantly looking to gather information and aren’t necessarily ready to purchase. Around 50–80% of searches fall under this category.
- Navigational Intent: Users with this intent are trying to locate a specific website, brand, page, or product. They know what they want but need help finding it—43% of retail customers head directly to the search bar on a website.
- Transactional Intent: This type of intent indicates that the users is ready to make a purchase and are searching for the best deals. With 33% of the world’s population shopping online, the quest for discounts and price comparisons is on the rise.
- Strategize Your Campaigns with Smarter Budgeting
With 89% of retail businesses emphasizing the importance of the holiday season for their bottom line, it’s clear that strategic planning is essential.
An effective holiday campaign hinges on understanding how much to spend and how quickly to deploy those resources. While the Cyber Five period presents significant visibility, the competition can be fierce. Therefore, a clear spending strategy is vital for retailers to connect with the right consumers at the ideal time.
- Leverage Ad-Tech To Grab Attention
Ad tech plays a vital role in helping businesses connect with their target audiences and achieve their advertising goals. By showing ads to users who are likely to engage with the messaging, implementing ad tech solution into marketing strategies can help advertisers to significantly enhance conversion rates and sales. It also optimizes ad spend by reducing wasted impressions on irrelevant audiences.
- Start Early
With 27% of shoppers kicking off their holiday shopping as early as October, it’s crucial for brands to be aware of holiday dates in advance. This insight enables them to choose the best sale days for promotions, allowing them to connect with customers through relevant themes.
To do this effectively, brands should start their prep early by brainstorming ideas and strategies. They need to plan like pros, optimize like crazy to make the most of their campaigns, and truly get to know their audience and what they want!
- Follow The Trends
Consumer engagement evolves during the holiday season, and staying informed about trending topics can help brands optimize their marketing strategies. Based on Taboola’s readership trends, here are the key topics likely to capture consumers’ attention during this time:
- October: Besides the spooky stuff, people are keen on content about pets, cars, beauty products, PC games, and parenting tips.
- Cyber Five: These shopping days ramp up interest in football, smartwatches, local businesses, home renovations, and food.
- December: As the holidays approach, shoppers focus more on investing, real estate, nature, cooking, and basketball.
- New Year (January): With the new year comes a focus on health, lifestyle, fitness, family, video games, and the weather.
- Seize Cyber Five
#DidYouKnow
$41.43 Billion is the projected U.S. retail E-commerce sales for the Cyber Five period in 2024, an increase from $39.25 billion in 2023, showing a 5.6% year-over-year growth, according to eMarketer.
#DidYouKnow
$13.93 Billion is expected to be spent on Cyber Monday in 2024, making it the top online shopping day of the Cyber Five period in the U.S., with a 7.8% growth from last year. Black Friday follows closely, projected to generate $10.76 billion, a 5.5% increase from 2023.
And there you have it—the game plan for a successful holiday season!
Karishma Parmar, Director of Advertiser Partnerships at SitePlug offering insight into how retailers can make the most of this bustling season: “An Ad-Tech solution is as important to marketers as fuel is to a car—it keeps campaigns running smoothly. SitePlug, a powerful ad-tech solution that drives high-quality traffic and turns clicks into sales by making sure your brand is in front of the right audience at the right time. It’s like having a digital concierge guiding customers to the right products. With the perfect mix of strategy, ad-tech tools, and smart budget management, you’ll unlock a new level of performance in the affiliate space. Trust me, the results are transformative!” .
Here’s how SitePlug’s bottom-funnel performance solutions can help advertisers drive success for the holiday season.
- Engaging Shoppers with Holiday Deals and Content
Site Discover helps capture shopper attention during the holiday season by promoting the brand through content, coupons, price comparisons, reviews, email campaigns, and deals across a vast network of 10,000+ active publishers.
- Fixing Domain Typos for Seamless Holiday Shopping
During the holiday rush, mistyped brand domains can lead to missed opportunities. Site Direct corrects these errors, ensuring shoppers are directed to the right websites, providing a smooth and efficient experience during this busy season.
- Suggesting Brands Based on Holiday Intent
Site Suggest understands the branded keyword typed by the user on the search bar suggesting the brand URL even before the user reaches the search result page. This solution helps serve as a trusted guide for holiday shoppers.
SitePlug has helped brands crush it during the holiday sales season—especially during Cyber Five.
SitePlug’s Cyber Five Performance - 2023 VS 2022
- 19% Increase in Clicks
- 32% Increase in Sales
SitePlug 2024 Projected Holiday Season Performance
- 488% Increase in Clicks
- 105% Increase in Conversions
- 230% Increase in Sales
Want to know how SitePlug can help you capitalize on these trends?
Connect now to get started!
