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Holiday Buying Influences Reveal Trends For 2014

Omnichannel consumers insist on flawless shopping experiences, particularly around the holiday season. That demand reached new heights this past season, with consumer behaviors revealing new insights into shopping trends for 2014, according to a study conducted by Baynote and the e-tailing group.

For the report, 1,000 U.S. online holiday shoppers were surveyed following Cyber Monday 2013 to gain insight into consumer behavior and key buying influencers across various retail channels.

Baynote’s 4th Annual Holiday Online Shopping Survey revealed that promotions, easy-to-use web functions, ratings and reviews, and mobile access were among the factors significantly influencing consumers’ holiday purchases.

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Highlights of the findings included:

  • 74% of shoppers leveraged promotions such as free shipping and coupons when making holiday purchases;

  • 74% of shoppers said a simple, streamlined shopping cart that makes checkout fast and easy was very or extremely important;

  • 48% of shoppers were always or frequently influenced by online ratings and reviews, a 45% increase from 2012; and

  • 34% percent of shoppers made a purchase on a retail-branded app, an increase of 48% from 2012.

Unconditional free shipping was extremely important to 60% of final purchasers. Other promotions with notable influence on the online sale included email and flash sales. Women were more likely to make purchases that included promotions. Shoppers also demanded easy access to information and integrated online and in-store tools: The majority said effective onsite search, comprehensive web pages and responsive customer service were extremely or very important.

Product ratings and reviews were found to exert the greatest influence on online purchases made by 48% of shoppers, up 45% from 2012. This increasingly popular information source influenced 37% of in-store purchases, up 12% from last year.

Mobile usage accelerated across the board: 62% of respondents used a smartphone to compare prices while shopping in a store and 43% used a tablet.

“It’s no surprise that mobile thrived this holiday season, as shoppers turned to personal devices for everything from researching products to redeeming coupons,” stated Marti Tedesco, Sr. Director of Marketing for Baynote. “What is really interesting is that the smartphone has become the bridge between the online and in-store experience. This has major ramifications on the investments that retailers should make in cross-channel tools.”

For a detailed analysis of the data, and to view the associated infographic, click here.

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