Facts about Ecommerce during the Christmas Holidays
The weeks leading up to Christmas make up the biggest shopping event of the year for many retailers in the US and European markets where customers can take advantage of up to 80% off in discounts. Retailers in France, for example, can rake in as much as 14% of their annual revenue at this time of the year.
We will touch several topics in this article. It is important to know that there are other holidays besides Christmas were people are looking to buy presents. In addition, we want to know how much the average US consumer spends on Christmas presents and what kind of items are on his wish list. We will propose a solution to the chaotic period leading up to Christmas for global trade companies so they can enjoy there Christmas as well. At last, we talk about which gifts perform best and which global companies are behind these best-selling products.
Holidays besides Christmas
If you do business internationally, you cannot overlook the other holidays besides Christmas. Christmas Eve is a holiday celebrated by mostly Christians. Where Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday, which is being celebrated by 6.5% of the US population. In addition, Kwanzaa is a African related holiday which is mostly celebrated in the US by 1.9% of the population. Planning sales events around both holidays are worth the effort since there are millions of potential customers looking for the perfect gift.
Keeping Track of Goods
Many global companies will know the problem. It is a real struggle to track and monitor all trades happening during the month leading up to the Christmas holidays. Orders go wrong, goods are lost, it can be really chaotic sometimes. ModulTrade is a company who can help you to bring back structure so you can enjoy the holidays yourself. ModulTrade is creating a platform to enable global trade finance where everything is tracked on the blockchain. Whereas blockchain helps to create trust, taking away all of your concerns.
Average spending on Christmas gifts
This statistic depicts the results of a survey about the estimated Christmas spending of US consumers from 1999 to 2017. The most recent survey revealed that US consumers expected to spend about 906 dollars on average on Christmas gifts, which is the highest amount until now (1).
The second highest amount is 866 dollars, which is just before the financial crisis in 2008. We’ve spent the lowest amount of money in the year of the crash itself. However, this is just a 29% decline. After the crash, we can see that the average spending is increasing almost every year. However, we cannot conclude that we have a positive trend going on here. We can conclude that there is a conjunctural trend because our economy is reestablishing itself. The trend we see on the graph, is almost identical to the growth of the GDP in the US below.
Wish list
It is important to have a deep understanding of the market. Another statistic shows the wish list per category by age group (2).
We can clearly see that 72% of the elderly people don’t have a wish list. Some potential reasons for this:
- They have most things they need or want
- Not aware of new products because of less contact with technology or the Internet
- Afraid of getting items they cannot use
Persons older than 60 who do have a wish list, tend to prefer a gift card or voucher so they are free to choose whatever they like. In this way, they can be sure they won’t get unwanted presents.
The age category 18 to 29 years prefers to get clothing or shoes. This age group is really concerned about how they look. It is a interesting target for marketing campaigns during the Christmas holidays. The second position on the wish list is dominated by tech items like computer accessories, electronics, media, video, audio, and games. According to a recent article, 1 in 4 Millennials puts Virtual Reality gadgets on top of their wish list (3).
Because of these Millennials, global companies like Amazon are targeting these youngster with pre-Christmas campaigns like Cyber Monday.
Top gifts and the companies behind them
Forbes created a list of best selling products with a top seller for each product (4).
1. Smartphones: A smartphone is the most bought Christmas gift. A survey found that 53.3% of prospective smartphone buyers indicated to buy an iPhone.
2. Tablets: Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the most wanted and extremely popular iPad alternative.
3. e-Readers: Again, Amazon dominates this category together with manufacturers like Barnes & Noble’s and Sony.
4. Gift Cards: Most bought gifts cards include: Amazon, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Walmart, Apple iTunes.
5. Toys: Hot Wheels, Disney, Undersea Mermaid. A dominant global player in this category is Mattel, Inc.
(1) https://www.statista.com/statistics/246963/christmas-spending-in-the-us-during-november/
(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/643594/holiday-season-wish-list-us-by-age-group/
(3) http://www.netimperative.com/2017/10/european-christmas-spend-brits-buy-presents/
(4) http://www.netimperative.com/2017/10/european-christmas-spend-brits-buy-presents/
Other interesting sources:
https://rjmetrics.com/resources/reports/ecommerce-holiday-trends/
https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Holiday-guide_final.pdf
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