- Key Dates for Holiday Season in 2024
- The Extended Shopping Season
- Online Shopping Boom
- How Consumer behavior changes during the holiday season?
- The General Holiday Trends in 2024
- Target Audience Segments for Agencies, Brands and Advertisers
As we approach the 2024 holiday season, both groups, retailers and consumers are looking for an extended period of festive deals and shopping experiences to find their key clients to provide them with the best offerings at the most competitive prices.
Leverage Festive November Audiences to Maximize Campaigns Efforts
Key Dates for Holiday Season in 2024
Check when the various holidays fall this year (besides Christmas):
- Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 28, 2024
- Black Friday: Friday, November 29, 2024
- Cyber Monday: Monday, December 2, 2024
- Green Monday: December 9, 2024
- Free Shipping Day: Around December 14, 2024 (date may vary by retailer)
- Christmas: Wednesday, December 25, 2024
The Extended Shopping Season
Many stores, including retail giants are now offering multiple “Black Friday Deals” events throughout November, giving shoppers more opportunities to snag great deals.
This extended season allows retailers to spread out their promotions and manage inventory more effectively. For consumers, it means more time to plan purchases, compare prices, and take advantage of various sales events.
Here is a list and differences on consumer behavior and brands and advertisers trying to reach their target audience:
Consumers:
- Longer period to find deals and make purchases.
- Increased price sensitivity, with two-thirds of global shoppers reporting that prices will dictate where they shop in 2024.
- More opportunities for early shopping, with promotional periods starting earlier.
- Greater focus on weekday shopping, especially online.
- Expectation for personalized shopping experiences and tailored interactions with brands.
Brands & Advertisers:
- Need for strategic discounting rather than blanket promotions.
- Focus on top sellers or new product launches to gain momentum.
- Opportunity to offer deeper discounts (30% or more) on selected products for higher sales lift.
- Importance of balancing discounts, profitability, and brand reputation.
- Necessity to understand e-commerce P&L for effective planning.
- Increased use of customer retention strategies, such as offering Black Friday deals to existing subscribers.
- Growing importance of leveraging customer data and enriching them for more advertising campaigns.
Online Shopping Boom
Online shopping is revolutionizing retail. New shopping events like Green Monday and Free Shipping Day are joining Black Friday, changing how we buy things. Green Monday, the second Monday in December, is now a major online shopping day as people rush for last-minute gifts. Free Shipping Day offers guaranteed pre-Christmas delivery.
Smartphones are becoming pocket malls, used for browsing, comparing prices, and buying on-the-go. This shift to digital shopping is changing how brands advertise and interact with customers. We are a part of this retail revolution every time we make a decision to shop online.
How Consumer behavior changes during the holiday season?
During the holiday season, consumers’ behaviors and preferences often shift, presenting unique opportunities for personalized offering from brands and advertisers. From users that buy very rarely and only specific categories of products, the holiday season changes impact on their buying habits and extensive purchase needs.
In order to connect with the target audience, it is recommended to utilize first-party data and together with advanced data enrichment capabilities that allows to get more information regarding other user needs and satisfy them properly at scale.
Therefore, advertisers and brands that recognize this type of consumer behavior may be able to tailor messaging and offers to the specific audience segments. At the same time, increase the relevance and effectiveness of holiday campaigns, driving higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction during this crucial retail period.
The General Holiday Trends in 2024
The holiday shopping season looks mixed. Global sales are expected to rise 2% to $1.19 trillion in November and December. Online shopping is booming, with a 9.5% increase to $271.58 billion. Overall retail sales should grow 4.8% in 2024. The election year likely won’t impact spending much. The key factor is personalization, boosting company revenues by 5% to 15%. This season, understanding customers is crucial for success.
Target Audience Segments for Agencies, Brands and Advertisers
In the high holiday shopping season, finding a way to connect with the right audience is crucial. OnAudience offers advanced seasonal targeting audience segments for November’s big events: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
These segments are a game-changer for agencies managing multiple client campaigns, multi-retailers targeting specific markets, e-commerce businesses chasing online shoppers, and brands connecting with loyal customers. By tapping into interests, online behavior, demographics, and purchase intent, you can craft personalized and focused campaigns.
Whether it’s reaching Thanksgiving prep enthusiasts, Black Friday deal-hunters, or Cyber Monday tech-savvy shoppers, these segments help brands, advertisers and agencies connect with their key audiences at profit.
