2024 Holiday Shopping Trends to Watch
The holiday shopping season is already underway, and experts predict a record-breaking year in total retail spending. Consumers have shown interest in a hybrid approach to holiday shopping, combining in-person and ecommerce, and a renewed emphasis on deal-hunting. Small businesses may not have the scale of online giants, but they can still turn this year’s holiday shopping trends to their advantage.
The Evolution of Holiday Shopping
Historically, the holiday shopping season started with Black Friday and ran right up to Christmas Eve. Over the past decade, consumers and retailers have pulled the start date back to early November, October, and September. Some experts now consider Amazon’s mid-July Prime Day sales event the new official start to the holiday shopping season.
In 2023, roughly half of US consumers started their holiday shopping in October, a trend expected to continue in the years ahead. Starting early has advantages, including more flexibility in finding deals, comparing prices across multiple retailers, and spreading expensive purchases out over a few months. That wait-and-see approach has characterized consumer spending for 2024 and 2023, a pattern that bodes well for retailers.
Holiday Shopping Trend #1: Debt
US consumers appear more comfortable with credit card debt than ever. Across income levels, 37% of shoppers say they’re using credit cards for holiday purchases, motivated by delayed payments but also to get rewards like air miles and cash back. Another 32% of consumers use Buy Now, Pay Later credit alternatives like Affirm.
Consumers have more debt in 2024 than in 2023; at the end of Q2 2024, total consumer debt in the US hit $17.7 trillion, a record high. Credit card balances comprised $1.1 trillion, a $27 billion increase year over year.
Inflation, high debt rates, and the longer sales period ultimately shape the holiday shopping season’s biggest trends, but there are ways to use these behaviors to your advantage.
Holiday Shopping Trend #2: Chinese Shopping Apps
Temu, Shein, and Aliexpress offer low-cost and often low-quality items, and these Chinese shopping apps are quickly capturing market share. These apps win on price in much the same way Amazon did in its early pre-Prime days. Two-thirds of shoppers base purchases on price, not quality, and over 58% of Salesforce survey respondents say these apps have the lowest prices.
While most small businesses won’t win on price, they can win on quality, experience, and customer service. Apps like Temu have very, very long and often uncertain shipping times, dancing between 6 and 22 days—and sometimes, the package never shows up. Local businesses offer expert customer service, easy return policies, and reliable shipping. Emphasize the benefits of shopping locally in holiday marketing materials to win the 30% of quality-focused consumers in the market.
Holiday Shopping Trend #3: AI
Consumers have been using generative and predictive AI for years, whether they realize it or not. While more shoppers may turn to ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini for holiday shopping tips this year, tools like Google’s Autocomplete have influenced shopping habits by predicting user search queries. As much as 17% of online purchases were impacted by some form of predictive search—and that’s something some small businesses can tap into.
Use SEO to target both seasonal keywords and relevant predictive queries - and it’s easy to do. Look at Google Search Console to see what queries drive the most clicks to your domain, and use Google’s Autocomplete feature to generate a list of variations of keywords for which you already rank and win clicks!
Holiday Shopping Trend #4: Comparative Shopping and Long Sales Cycles
While shoppers might start looking in October, they will spend until the last minute. That longer sales cycle gives marketers a lot of data to target return users through paid campaigns. Small businesses that can’t compete on price can use the lengthy shopping season to target shoppers who have searched for products or services without converting using tools from Google Ads, Meta, and more. These paid remarketing campaigns are typically less expensive than core PPC campaigns and lean on low-cost display ads to stay in front of users who have already visited your website. Consumers will spend money and time during the holiday shopping season. Make the most of the longer sales cycle to win discerning shoppers!
‘Tis The Season For Better Holiday Marketing
Small businesses have several advantages over online retailers but must also market to those strengths to be competitive. Holiday revenue keeps small businesses going, so invest in marketing that will drive digital and foot traffic. From social media to email marketing, we can help you pull the right levers at the right time. Find out how Sovis Media can help; get in touch today.