Just 26 Days of Holiday Shopping Places Increased Emphasis on Conversion

Halloween may be the holiday in our collective sights, but with Thanksgiving coming so late this year, Black Friday officially kicks off buying season buying on November 29th. And, that is something we really, really need to talk about now. The Holiday Code Freeze deployed by most e-commerce sites will soon go into effect to guard against mishaps during this time of peak traffic. In a recent blog, we shared some tips on how, with Feature Flags, you need not completely halt development but, as your partner in commerce and optimization, we wanted to highlight a few things for this crucial quarter that came out of a recent eMarketer Webinar.

eMarketer analyst, Andrew Lipsman, forecasts that this year, despite tariffs and trade wars, we may see the first $1 Trillion year for holiday sales. However, the catch is that with Thanksgiving so late there will only be 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as opposed to 32 days in 2018. Essentially this means nearly a week less for retailers to market, sell and fulfill. Per eMarketer, consumers will have to spend 20% more per day to match 2018.

eMarketer’s 2019 Holiday Forecast

This year mobile is expected to play an increasingly valuable role. Where once the prime shopping spot was a desktop, in 2019 there is an expectation of nearly 25% growth in mobile transactions. As Lipsman said, “Mobile could be the difference this year between growing and not growing.” 

Mobile is the key to success this season

Other key takeaways of note from the eMarketer webinar include the notion that free shipping will help to unlock e-commerce and that Direct to Consumer brands will be nipping at the heels of their larger competitors this season and getting a piece of that holiday pie. As with so many things that benefit the consumer (in this case shipping) it places pressure on the retailers’ margins. 

With all this pressure of heated competition, experimentation and personalization can play a key role in making sure you meet and exceed your holiday commerce goals. At a high level below are just a few of the ways that you can seek to do this. 

For the full stream of the eMarketer Webinar featuring tips and tricks for optimizing during the Holiday season, you can click here.