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