2022 Holiday Trends Marketers Should Know
The 2022 holiday season marks NetElixir’s 14th annual holiday forecast. A cornerstone of our forecast is our?e-commerce holiday calendar , which details the expected online sales volume of crucial days throughout the holiday season. Marketers can use this calendar to know when their customers are more likely to be active online so they can more effectively schedule their most attractive holiday promotions and maintain their budget.
NetElixir’s Holiday Forecast: 7% YoY growth this year.
Gifting Holiday Cheer
Your shoppers want a return to normalcy. Past holiday seasons have been interrupted by new COVID-19 variants and altered traditions. This year, people want to celebrate and express holiday cheer with?thoughtful gifts ?and celebratory, community moments.?
Recent Online Sales Boost
Since the latter half of August, NetElixir has noted upward trending online sales. Back-to-school sales have been fairly strong and are always a good indicator of how holiday sales will fare. The number of items per shopping cart has remained the same, while orders have decreased slightly, as consumers had to choose between essential and non-essential items amid rising prices.?
Demand is picking up, especially as retailers are promoting liquidation offers to clear their inventories to make room for holiday stock. These offers from September to October will segue into holiday promotions in November.?
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Role of Mobile
The role of mobile in searches and orders is only growing. Between comparison checks with other online offers while browsing in store, downloading apps for exclusive deals, mobile-only offers, and simple convenience, people are opting to shop from their mobile phone more often. Categories like beauty and apparel have seen the most notable rise of mobile orders within NetElixir’s dataset.
Expanding Customer Journey
So many factors, influences, and touchpoints go into every purchase, so it is important for brands to be wherever their customers are searching and shopping. We expect marketplaces and retail media to account for 58-60% of total online holiday sales this year. TikTok emerged as 2022’s hottest advertising channel, rivaling Google and Meta. Social commerce will continue to pick up steam.
The 2022 holiday season will also be dictated by Google’s?Performance Max campaigns . PMax leverages Google’s machine learning algorithm to serve the best ad in each moment. Ensure you feed Google’s algorithm with high-quality data, from your creative assets to your audience signals.
Stories As Empathy Agents
Self-expression and connection are more important than ever before — for both brands and individuals. Aggregated stories are shaping the future, fueled by TikTok and the ease of creating and promoting stories that are part of a larger trend. Brands can tap into the power of connection through thoughtful and authentic storytelling to share their values and culture. Consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, prefer to buy from brands that stand for something. This holiday season, consumers will continue to carefully research potential gifts to find the perfect one that aligns with their own values and needs. Authentic brand stories will drive deeper connections with new and returning customers.
Read the full blog for more holiday tips and trends.