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Holiday Shopping Update for Small Retailers

1 Mins read

In a recently released 2021 holiday shopping survey by Influence Central, 47% of consumers say they plan to shop “mostly” online this year, 47% plan to shop online and in-store, and just 6% plan to only shop in-store.

Over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, 179.8 million unique shoppers made in-store and online purchases, exceeding the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) initial expectations by more than 21 million.

And social commerce—buying products directly from social media platforms—and a subset of e-commerce, is quickly growing: 45% of consumers are “open to making holiday purchases directly from within a social media platform.” Their social channels of choice:

  • 77% Instagram and Facebook
  • 45%   Directly from a blog post
  • 37%   Pinterest
  • 19%   YouTube
  •  12%   TikTok
  •   4%   Twitch

Influence Central says consumers also turn to social media platforms to “discover holiday gift ideas” (71%), so make sure you’re actively posting on your social channels during the holidays.

In addition, consumers are increasingly participating in “click and collect” behaviors:

  • 89% will shop online and ship to home
  • 35% will buy online and pick up curbside
  • 34% will buy online and pick up in-store

According to the Influence Central survey, shoppers expect incentives to get them to buy—92% expect some type of discount. Specifically:

  • 39% want percentage-off discounts
  • 26% expect free shipping promotions
  • 12% want a set dollar amount off
  • 12% prefer BOGO discounts

Online shoppers have a different list of “most-wanted”:

  • 95% say free shipping is essential
  • 87% don’t want to make a minimum purchase to get free shipping
  • 92% want free and easy returns

Holiday photo by Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

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