COVID-19 has turned 2020 completely upside down, so why wouldn’t it impact with the holiday shopping season as well? Seventy-five percent of retailers expect a longer holiday shopping season this year, with half of those retailers expecting consumers to start making holiday purchases in October, according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation.
A longer holiday shopping season, combined with the realization that 55% of retailers are starting their advertising and promotional blitzes earlier this year than last means that companies are going to be fighting for the attention of consumers who are going to be overwhelmed with options and offers. Standing out among the crowd of companies seeking to win the business of consumers is going to be more important than ever, especially considering that most consumers are going to do their holiday shopping from home. Not having the chance to reach consumers with eye-catching offers once they walk into a store, retailers are going to have to rely on other means, like text messaging, to capture consumers’ attention.
Half of all retailers expect more shopping to be done online by consumers visiting a website with their mobile device or shopping using a mobile app, so why not reach them on the very devices they will use to make their holiday purchases? Reaching out to consumers to get them to opt in to receiving communications from you via text messaging has never meant so much to your bottom line. Using text messaging to let customers know of special sales, offers, and other holiday promotions ensures they will see it and are more likely to respond to it than an email or other type of communication.
Even if consumers don’t start their holiday shopping this month, now is the time to reach out to them to either get their consent to receive text messages or, if you already have consent, reach out to them to let them know what you have in store for the upcoming holiday season. Your marketing is going to need to stand out this year more than ever.
Although the economy is in the middle of a pandemic, and millions of jobs have been lost, the expectation is that consumers are going to spend more this holiday season than they did last year, according to a forecast from Deloitte. Fueling that increase will be a jump in e-commerce sales, which are projected to be 35% higher than they were a year ago. More evidence that people are going to be shopping on their phones this year, ramping up the importance of text messaging.
Many stores are already displaying holiday lights and decorations and more will be doing so in the coming days and weeks. Don’t wait until it is too late to try and reach your customers with your important communications.