Christmas Shopping Behavior with COVID-19
Since the beginning of the global contingency caused by COVID-19, many companies have been forced to change their strategy in order to meet the needs of users and stay active in the competitive market.
For many companies the big question is if online sales will be as successful as going to the store. Will sales be the same or better than previous years? Are customers ready to buy everything online? And we could go on with a long list of questions.
For example, imagine that the behavior and decision of customers this Christmas 2020 would be:
- 47% Plan to make more purchases online
- 41% Plan to spend less money or buy fewer gifts
- 33% Plan to go to physical stores and maintain social distance
- 8% Think COVID-19 won't impact Christmas shopping plans
What will your Christmas shopping be like this year? Perhaps this will also be a common behavior in 2021.
Hubspot guides us towards three essential reasons of how would be the consumers behavior during their Christmas purchases, so that companies can take concrete actions.
1. Physical stores will have customers, they won’t be empty. Many buyers haven’t yet migrated their behavior to online shopping, however 47% of those who were interviewed plan to make more purchases online on 2020.
What is the recommendation for companies?
You need to have online presence, an e commerce strategy is necessary if you want to respond to consumers demand. We are talking about having visibility on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Google, where users regularly perform the first search for products and services.
2. Many users will not spend as much money on gifts as in previous years, this because of the financial and social impact that the contingency brought. Just 41% of those interviewed mentioned that they planned to spend less money.
What are the options for companies to face this behavior?
Perhaps many companies are not prepared for this, some key questions that they should ask themselves are: Why does the customer need my product? How am I helping them to solve this stay at home problem? Are my prices competitive?
To change the communication can be a good strategy: showing prices, promotions and sales, offers and benefits. Remember that there is no better advertising than that of a happy customer.Begin to show testimonials and content generated by the customers. The most important thing is the authenticity and trust that your brand generates.
3. Customers are taking social distancing very seriously, many would like to buy in physical stores this year, but they also want to avoid crowds of people. Only 33% of those interviewed affirm that they will go to the stores in a careful way and only if the stores comply with the sanitary measures.
How can you make your customers feel safe if you have a physical store?
Worrying about customers will be your best goal, people are looking for sanitary and health measures. Consider to keep everything in order, keep aisles free and one-way, consider having protection barriers in the payment area and even on the shelves and of course do not forget the antibacterial gel in strategic points.
Let's make a summary! Consider what is the impact this pandemic had in your company, plan a special marketing strategy for this situation, communicate to your customers the measures you took for your company, maintain a constant online presence, and most importantly, your customer comes first.
At Ingenia we help you create a marketing strategy with global impact, we improve the user experience on your website, or we create it from scratch, we build apps to generate greater closeness with your users, and we exponentially project your brand in all social media platforms.