Partner Article

Shining a light on Christmas shopping trends with Dark Social

Every year, the Christmas season sees a clear spike in consumer spending. In 2016, the UK spent a total of £77.56 billion in the run up to the 25th December. According to Nationwide Building Society , British shoppers purchase 14 individual gifts on average during the festive season, totalling to £645 of spend per person.

Shopping online has also made the gift-buying process more convenient, eliminating the need to head out to a store. It’s not surprising then, that nearly a quarter of all Christmas purchases are made online.

RadiumOne’s Christmas Insights Report shows that three in five people (62 per cent) start planning their gifts within three months of Christmas day. This time-period is key for marketers who want to maximise brand impact during the Christmas shopping frenzy.

The research also reveals that the shopping period consists of three distinct phases. To understand the festive consumer is to recognise their shopping habits. Then, marketers can shape their campaigns around peoples’ behaviours accordingly. They need to draw up their plans carefully to take full advantage of the heightened amount of shopping.

Capitalise on Black Friday

In 2016, Black Friday saw the highest rate of buying over the entire Christmas shopping season. This trend is set to follow suit this year. While brand sales at Christmas time remained above average compared to the rest of the year, RadiumOne found that there is a clear spike in online transactions on Black Friday.

You would be mistaken to think Black Friday is only for tech and gadgets. We identified several categories with increased sales during the period. Black Friday is when most gift hunters take to the web to stock up on gifts, regardless of category. In fact, technology and jewellery sales increased by 52 per cent and 48 per cent respectively, while sports and beauty purchases increased by a third.

Dark social makes consumer intent clear

RadiumOne’s research also found that 80 per cent of Christmas shoppers share festive content through dark social channels such as email or instant messaging. As such a large portion of consumers sharing content on these channels, dark social is crucial to the Christmas shopping cycle.

Dark social sharing is also a good indicator for consumers’ intent for later purchase. One in two (50 per cent) people sharing technology gift ideas via these channels and one in three (33.3 per cent) people sharing fashion gifts, go on to the point of purchase.

Multi-screen is key

Engaging customers with a mixture of screens is essential in the lead-up to Christmas. Consumers tend to use mobile for researching those perfect presents, but when it comes to conversion, consumers continue to prefer desktop and laptop. Almost a third (29 per cent) of consumers use both mobile and desktop in their shopping journey, while 64 per cent prefer to stick to one screen.

Marketers need to consider mobile in their festive campaigns. Cross-device is as important to Christmas shopping as it is at any other time of year, and a successful marketing strategy is one which is executed across different channels.

By understanding their target audience’s sharing and planning habits, marketers can maximise the ROI from their campaigns. And this is even more important during the festive period, when the noise of Christmas campaigns can easily drown out brands which neglect their planning.

The full report can be viewed here: http://radium1.co/Christmas2017.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Craig Tuck, Managing Director, RadiumOne UK .