42 percent of consumers have planned to anticipate their Christmas purchases, but the unstable economic situation and the uncertainty is also leading many users to wait for possible last-minute offers, what will they be "more aggressive", according to Salesforce’s Christmas 2022 campaign predictions, which point to an increase in average discounts from 15 to 18 percent compared to last year.
"Retailers and consumers are playing once again to the mouse and the cat with the discounts. Early promotions are held to stimulate demand, but many consumers wait for the latest and greatest deal in key moments such as Black Friday or Cyber Week"comments Enrique Mazón, Vice President of eCommerce Cloud at Salesforce Iberia, in a meeting with the media attended by Europa Press.
According to the report, the biggest discounts were found in household appliances (26 percent); bags and suitcases (24 percent); clothing (22 percent); and makeup, beauty and skincare (21 percent). Offers that encourage consumption.
The data of the ‘Shopping Index’ Salesforce corresponding to the third quarter of the year showed a growth of 2 percent in sales ‘online’ in Spain, compared to a decrease of 2 percent globally.
However, the data collected by the company from October 1 to November 14 shows a slowdown in sales compared to the same period of the previous year, something that could change with the discounts that are expected for Black Friday and Cyber Week.
"Online traffic early in the season was strong, but sales were weak. This means that although consumers have been exploring web pages, they are being cautious when executing purchases. Retailers can now succeed by focusing on automation and increased productivity to reduce costs and combat mounting margin pressure."adds the director of the company.
INCREASE IN ONLINE SPENDING VERSUS PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS
According to Salesforce data, global online spending will remain strong – compared to pre-pandemic levels – although the price increase due to inflation will translate into a decrease in the number of orders. This situation causes the margins of the ‘retailers’ are reduced, so your sales strategies "they will have to be more efficient in order to improve profitability".
"Bringing purchasing periods forward, offering sustainable products and increasing the number of channels to connect with your customers are some of the trends for this upcoming campaign"adds the document, which highlights that over the last two years users They have given greater importance to the values of the companies with which they are related.
In fact, up to 64 percent of consumers have stated that they would stop purchasing products from a company if the corporate values do not match their own. A trend that becomes especially relevant in relation to the environment: 83 percent of buyers will look for sustainable brands and products during these holidays.
The report also concludes that half of shoppers will switch brands this Christmas due to price. This means that up to 2.5 billion customers around the world might change brands for this reason, so it’s "It is essential to offer a good shopping experience to customers to retain them".
To achieve this goal, managing and exploiting data across the entire company is critical, yet 54 percent of customers feel that, overall, sales, service and marketing departments they are not well communicated with each other, the document concludes.
ADOPTION OF INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
On the other hand, the company’s experts affirm that the new emerging channels and innovation will mark another of the trends of this campaign. According to Salesforce, ‘Live Shopping’ (live broadcasts to promote sales) has become a new source of profit generation for almost half of ‘retailers’.
Likewise, the presence of brands on social channels and their commitment to collaboration with ‘influencers’ on platforms such as Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok or Amazon Live will be another of the trends in this Christmas campaign, with "significant increases in sales conversion".
On this last point, Andrea Zarroca, Senior Principal Success Manager of Retail at Salesforce Spain, has highlighted that in Spain "many ‘retailers’ are still not prepared to incorporate disruptive solutions such as NFT for this Christmas campaign". "However, ‘Live Shopping’ can work very well to incentivize specific products. For example, ideas on what to give"has apostilled.
Finally, the report indicates that this campaign will be marked more than ever by omnichannel. Physical stores recover the impact on sales and this is corroborated by the fact that 85 percent of customers expect unified interactions, regardless of where they occur.
Specifically, physical presence helps to increase sales up to 1.5 times compared to those brands with only an ‘online’ presence. Therefore, offering various options – such as buy ‘online’ and pick up in store – will help generate new purchases (74 percent of retailers have reported that their customers purchased at least one more product while they were in the store to pick up an order ).