What if there were no holiday shopping season in 2020?
Five months ago, if we would have posed this question, you would have thought we’d lost our minds. A holiday season devoid of crowded shopping malls, families walking down Main Street window shopping, crowds gathering for Christmas tree lightings, and customers waiting in line to get the best deals on Black Friday morning seemed unthinkable.
And then along came Covid-19.
While there will definitely still be a holiday shopping season this year (and many believe we need it more than in any other year), it is just as definitely going to be different than anything we’ve seen before. Retail stores have capacity limitations, gathering in large crowds isn’t allowed, and other barriers to a traditional holiday season are in place.
But . . . consumers are still going to shop. They are just going to do it differently, and the time is now for businesses to make sure they are prepared to have presence where their customers are – online, and in mobile apps.
A recent study from daVinci Payments found that seven in ten (71%) of consumers plan to do more than half of their holiday shopping online this year. And this just isn’t among Millennials – all demographic groups will spend the majority of their shopping time online:
Online shopping is happening in two key places – on computers and laptops, and on mobile devices. In fact, since the pandemic struck, Salesforce finds that interest in shopping online has increased by close to half (47%) of consumers on computers, and by over one-third (37%) on mobile apps.
The holiday shopping season starts in the next couple of months – retailers and businesses who haven’t yet invested in altering their business model by investing in providing digital shopping solutions to their customers are potentially missing this shift in behavior. If you’re interested in learning more about how mobile apps and engaging consumers online and on their smartphones, give us a call. We can get you in the best position possible to profit from these challenging times.
And let us be the first to say: happy holidays!
