The results are in and it’s official: People are shopping. A lot. That’s not so different from past Black Friday/Cyber Monday/ Cyber Week results – this has been the biggest shopping week of the year since Shop.org introduced Cyber Monday/Week. But this holiday shopping season kickoff may be remembered for a few unique reasons:
Weaker Black Friday: The New York Times reported that Black Friday results were disappointing, but the low numbers may have been due to a “Black November.” Given the shorter shopping period this year, sales for holiday shoppers began as early as November 1. That and Thanksgiving Day sales may have eaten into Friday. All that said, the NRF reports that the number of shoppers was up, but the dollar amount spent ($407 per person) was lower than last year.
Strongest Cyber Monday on Record: Internet Retailer reported that $2.29 billion was spent on Cyber Monday, shattering all historical records. Business Insider estimates that total e-commerce grew 24% over the three key shopping days. ChannelAdvisor attributes part of this growth to shoppers scouring online stores for products that were sold out in-store. Also, where Cyber Monday used to be shop-at-work event, shopping this year extended well into the evening hours.
Now what? With just a week until Christmas how can retailers continue to drive sales? Regardless of how much has been spent, there are still plenty of shoppers with gifts left to purchase. What can be done to make sure those shoppers spend with you?
1. Activate display to compliment your direct mail strategies: By supplementing direct mail (the many catalogs, with carefully targeted display, retailers are sure to drive more shoppers into the store. Email combined with direct mail and targeted, cross-screen display can be an incredibly powerful combination. Test the combination to see how it compares to other tactics.
2. Better leverage your offline data influence your online strategies: Beyond activating your CRM data to target high value customers, review store data to see which are most successful and which are struggling. For the stores that are lagging in sales, invest in targeted display to drive in-store sales. Leverage your data to determine which products are most popular in which stores, then geo-target audiences to promote those products locally.
3. The shopping season isn’t over yet! So don’t just remarket – actively prospect! Use your data to create lookalike models that will help identify new audiences, then present them with relevant offers that will drive sales – continue to feed the funnel. Get incremental; get new users. Tailor your daily spend to mirror your anticipated revenues.
It may not be Cyber Monday again, but shoppers are still out there.
Food For Thought: How are you ramping up your spend to amplify shopping results? Learn more about how MediaMath’s Retail capability can help.
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