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How Your Brand Can Reward Holiday Shopping Procrastinators

It’s become known as Panic Saturday. You know the one, that final Saturday before Christmas when all the last-minute shoppers descend on the nearest mall to snap up remaining gift items. But what are Panic Saturday shoppers likely to find when they show up this December 18? In light of well-publicized shipping delays and inventory shortages, they may find some empty shelves. But all is not lost for them and we’re here to tell you why.

It will be critical for shoppers to find last-minute gifts that arrive on time. With that in mind, retailers are wise to spend the 2021 holiday run-up leaning into non-physical gift options for customers. Gift cards. Flight and hotel vouchers. Subscription boxes. Digital subscriptions. These evergreen favorites can be the saving grace for 11th-hour shoppers and the retailers who rely on them.

Top Consumer Stress Factors

Let’s back up for a moment and consider some recent pre-holiday consumer data. A Ziff Media Group survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults revealed that, while expectations around delivery and shipping are split, concern has begun to rise. Budget and finances — traditionally shoppers’ biggest worries — have given way to concern over out-of-stock items. We also learned that, while people desperately want their items on time, most are not willing to budge much on shipping costs to make it happen.

Here are the top three stress factors for consumers this holiday season:

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  • #1: Fear of products being out of stock (45%, up from 34% in Q3)
  • #2: Budget and finances (40%, down from 45% in Q3)
  • #3: Delivery delays (38%, up from 35% in Q3)

More than half of consumers are anticipating delivery or shipping delays (55%), out-of-stock items (54%) and product shortages (53%), while 50% are bracing for longer-than-usual wait times and 42% are worried about product price increases.

Late Start for Many Consumers

Despite widespread concern about delays, we see solid evidence that many consumers are getting a late start on their shopping. Many who intended to get an early jump simply have not.

According to our survey:

  • On average, consumers have completed just 20% of their holiday shopping
  • Some 39% haven’t done any holiday shopping yet
  • 74% plan to do at least some last-minute holiday shopping this season

Importantly, more than half of consumers (57%) expect to wait until the last minute (December or later) to buy gift cards this year. Of those last-minute types, 46% expect to buy cards for food and beverage, 37% for large electronics and 30% for makeup and skincare. If we’re not making this obvious enough for retailers, consider this a really loud trumpet call: you are staring a quick sales opportunity right in the face, so plan accordingly.

Helping Procrastination Pay Off

As consumer procrastination gives retailers an opportunity to push quick deals on gift card sales and other digital gifts, shoppers may find that it actually pays to procrastinate. One reason? ZMG Shopping brands — including RetailMeNot and Offers.com — created an event precisely for this late-arriving audience. We cheekily called it It Pays To Procrastinate. This event allows retailers and brands to partner with RetailMeNot and other savings brands to highlight last-minute gift opportunities, including both digital gifts and opportunities to highlight products still in stock, for holiday shopping laggards.

Fittingly, the event begins on December 18, aka Panic Saturday, and will feature in-store and BOPIS offers from brands along with deals on digital gifts. Featured items will be guaranteed to arrive on time, making it easy for shoppers to save on last-minute purchases.

By doing this, we want to help ensure that shoppers who might otherwise be faced with shipping delays and out-of-stock items find their way back to their happy place and don’t go giftless this season.

Here’s hoping your brand plans for this year’s unique challenges and capitalizes on available opportunities. If all goes well, you and your customers can ring in the holidays in the best of spirits.


Whitney King is Director of Brand and Partner Marketing for Ziff Media Group, where she oversees commerce insights and thought leadership, partner and industry events, and branded content for its portfolio of publishing and shopping brands, including Mashable and PCMag. Prior to ZMG, King served in various roles at RetailMeNot, a Ziff Media Group Company, leading strategic insights for retailers, corporate branding and B2B and B2C advertising campaigns, with a focus on connecting consumers and retailers during key moments throughout the shopping journey. King brings more than 10 years’ experience to the retail space with prior roles leading creative and branding initiatives for brands such as Walmart, Dell, P&G, Best Buy and more. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications and a master’s in creative advertising.

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