As a consumer marketer, you know how important Q4 can be to your bottom line. It’s a time when consumer buying power is at its highest, and shoppers are likely to spend until they can’t spend anymore.
Most of our clients start prepping for holiday when the weather is still hot to make the most of this lucrative time. The holiday generates sales from new and existing shopping because of increased demand and higher intent to buy. Let’s explore a few holiday shopping facts:
55% of consumers plan to purchase holiday items online this season
The majority of consumers will search for and purchase their holiday gifts online this season. As we’ve seen this number continue to grow year-over-year, it’s increasingly important to ensure that your online presence is strong going into Q4.
47% of consumers plan to use online search for gift ideas
Almost half of consumers don’t quite know what they are going to buy when they start their holiday gift search. The good news is, this opens up a large opportunity for you to leverage search to take advantage of this trend and help get your product to the top of consumers’ minds.
66% of consumers start their product search on Amazon
This stat is by far the most surprising. Many of you may have generally accepted over the years that about 45-50% of consumers start their product search on Amazon. But there was a study done earlier this year that suggests that this has increased to ⅔ of consumers! When it comes to product searches, Amazon has now surpassed Google as a search engine.
59% of households have a Prime membership
Over the last six years, we have seen Prime membership rise from 25% in 2013 to 59% today. This is increasingly important because Prime members are more loyal to Amazon and tend to purchase more at a higher spend than non-Prime members. It’s true that you really can reach most of America by selling on Amazon. It’s not a matter of if Amazon will dominate sales in Q4, but rather which brands will participate in the success.
Amazon will do at least 32% of its annual sales in Q4
In 2018, Amazon shattered sales records in Q4 – and they are trending to do so again this season. One of the most important factors for you as you create your holiday plan is timing. We have great data now that tells us when customers are starting their shopping experience and when the demand starts to taper off.
You can see in the image below that November is when demand starts to accelerate. But there is even a build up for shoppers who start their holiday shopping during Prime Day (in July). We can’t go back and change that, but looking forward, you can take advantage of opportunities in October, November, and December to make sure you are tapping into these shopping trends in Q4.
