If you analyze the results relating to the 2022 holidays well, you can understand how to sell better all year round. The holiday season has always been the litmus test for online sales. From Black Friday to the post-Christmas sales, the months from November to January are the ones in which consumer purchases are most concentrated.
Accurately analyzing the performances of your ecommerce site and physical stores is an essential activity for any future marketing strategy. Furthermore, a long-term strategy must be accompanied by the ability to listen “live” to the consumer and dynamically modify the offer to satisfy their immediate needs.
The macro data is analyzed by the platform suppliers who manage the entire customer interaction process: from the first approach with a brand to the after-sales service. Among these Salesforce, recognized worldwide as a leader in CRM (Customer Relationship Management). The company has published data on the performance of online shopping during the 2022 holiday season. The November and December purchases of over 1.5 billion consumers in more than 64 countries including Italy were analysed, on the websites of ecommerce created with Salesforce Customer 360 solutions.
Salesforce’s holiday dataset also includes 24 of the top 30 US online retailers in the 2021 Digital Commerce 360 list and uses publicly available third-party data sources. In order to be included in the analysis set, a digital commerce site must have transacted throughout the analysis period, and meet a minimum spend requirement.
Salesforce observed that online sales in November 2022 were lower than in 2021 and 2020. In contrast, Cyber Week promotions and BOPIS (Buy Online and Pick Up In Store) offers were been decisive for the excellent performances of retailers. In total, in the two months under review, monitored consumers spent 1.14 trillion dollars worldwide.
The winning strategies to sell better
From what Salesforce observed, retailers have offered a higher average discount since Black Friday than in 2021 (21% less than 19% a year earlier). The most discounted product categories were Beauty – in particular skin care and make-up products – which benefited from an average discount of 29%. But clothing and especially bags also recorded an average discount of 27%. This confirms the opportunities for these product categories, thanks also to a margin that favors discounts and, as in the case of Beauty, to an affordable average order value.
Another interesting trend concerns the aforementioned BOPIS. Nearly one in five orders worldwide ended up with in-store pickup. Notably, service peaked at 35% on the Friday before Christmas. It is clear, therefore, that the consumer is happy to choose a gift online and to take advantage of the BOPIS opportunity for collection in the store, and thus arrive on time. The modality, in particular, can reward retailers who do not charge shipping costs to those who pick up in the store, with obvious advantages in terms of logistics for the retailer itself.
In the 2022 holidays, social networks were the real protagonists, reaching all-time highs. Traffic from social channels drove 12% of all mobile purchases (which grew 23% year over year). And Italy, together with Belgium and the United States, was one of the countries with the highest number of consumers activated via social networks. What does this data tell us? Meanwhile, it is necessary to provide the consumer with as many sales channels as possible. But also that purchasing via smartphone on social networks is rapidly gaining points compared to direct access to ecommerce. Therefore, it can be useful to direct more efforts and investments on social platforms – both in organic terms and in Social Advertising – compared to SEO or Search Adv.
Finally, returns made during the holidays have reached important levels. According to Salesforce, the value of returns was approximately $1.4 billion, or 13% of total orders. A growing number with a surge in the six days following Christmas. In fact, 16% of orders were returned that week (+5% compared to last year). The latter evidence can be transformed into an opportunity. The return is a right, it’s up to the retailer to build a winning strategy around it that leads to loyalty, upselling and cross-selling. Therefore, it is important to favor the return methods as much as possible and, once the consumer has been “captured”, to offer him attractive alternatives. A long-term strategy like this will pay off.
“The issue of returns – said Gianluca De Cristofaro, VP Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Italia – is certainly critical but still manageable with an even more customer centric strategy. In 2023, retailers will have to redouble their efforts to provide greater personalization thanks to the intelligent use of data and greater efficiency in order management, customer service and, indeed, returns”.