2022 Holiday Shopping Trends and Predictions for eCommerce

As the 2022 holiday shopping season is on its way, customers are ready with their wallets to explore new shopping trends. They are eagerly waiting for brands to provide convenient and personalized things to make their holiday better. On the other hand, brands entail making the customer's shopping experience simple and interesting. Here, we keep you up on the latest shopping trends and tips to reach more customers in a limited period of time.

Shoppers are always busy, thanks to the internet online brands and their constant shopping availability. A frequent number of shoppers are online as they love flawless and customized shopping processes. Brands can easily reach the targeted audience using AI solutions. So, brands should ensure that their landing page works smoothly and encourage more visitors to explore more.

5 Holiday Shopping Trends for 2022

As an eCommerce retailer, get ready to bustle this holiday season; here, we glean up the list of 2022 holiday shopping trends and predictions to help you make the most of the holiday season. So, scroll down and keep yourself ahead of the trends.

1. Mobile Commerce Will be Embraced in the Holiday Shopping Season

More than 55% of shoppers plan to shop using mobile phones and tablets as it's the forefront shopping strategy improving the shopping experience. Now, it's become essential for retailers to invest more in improving their mobile capabilities. Whether it's an app or improving search results, it becomes important for retailers to utilize mCommerce.

Several reports from different sources revealed that mobile devices slowly grew and became a major shopping channel. One of the market intelligence provides the information that top US live stream shopping apps grew 77% year-over-year to 2.3 million, and it grew incredibly in the prior five months of 2022. Another report shows that mCommerce sales grew by more than $359 billion in 2022. It's a great bounce and predicted sales should grow even more in the forthcoming years. It's also notable that the sales percentage increased by more than 20% from 2016 -2021.

The mCommerce shopping trend will surely continue this holiday shopping season. So, does it matter for online retailers? A big yes! Online retailers should keep the mobile commerce trend on top of their holiday shopping season strategy. Firstly, they should set up a mobile-friendly website with an eye-catching design, streamlined catalog, and robust customer support. The marketing should be user-friendly and easily accessible on smartphones.

2. Holiday Shopping Will Begin Early

It's predicted that this holiday shopping season will be extended as shoppers start purchasing before the arrival of the holidays. Despite inflation, woes in the supply chain, labor shortage, and more, the last two shopping seasons also saw an early start.

Interestingly, the previous years have changed the shopping expectations of the customers as many retailers have rolled out Black Friday deals throughout the mid of October and November. Furthermore, Cyber Monday has also been extended for a week instead of the traditional single-day calendar after Thanksgiving. From the significant success and net profit of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, retailers are likely to stick to this trend.

In order to avoid future hikes in prices, a wide number of adults have kicked off holiday shopping earlier. With the advent of online shopping, which is always on, shoppers are ready for future purchases. Ultimately, it encourages retailers to begin early deals.

According to many reports, there are frequent warnings of inflation at the end of the year 2022, so customers are looking for more discounts and deals. A huge number of buyers are about to start buying gifts earlier. Inflation is at the top of consumers' minds, and online retailers jumped into the early deals bandwagon. Moreover, it enables customers to do their shopping earlier and avoid shipping delays that are common in every holiday shopping season.

3. Customers Will Focus More on Value Rather than Brand Loyalty

Customers are about to shift their shopping behavior due to inflation, food shortage, and other factors. The latest holiday shopping trends indicate that customers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands offering customized shopping experiences. Brands practicing biodegradable packaging, sustainable supply chain, rapid order fulfillment, and attractive deals are at the top of the online marketplace.

Half of the customers are switching their brand loyalty to save more money. They are expected to switch to brands that fit better in their budget. This is the same in different niches, declining customers' loyalty to a brand. This apparently shows that brand loyalty is not so high as customers are using various shopping platforms. In addition, omni-channels are also ruling this holiday season.

As a result of this, brands should focus on attracting new customers and retaining old ones. They should focus more on values and improve the end-to-end shopping experience of the customers. Furthermore, pay more attention to shipping deadlines to avoid high traffic and delays.

eCommerce businesses can gain profit from collaborating with other reliable shipping service providers. With this, they can stay ahead of the holiday shopping trend as the shipping hassles will be easily handled by certified shipping partners.

4. Shoppers Race for Exclusive Discounts, and the Best Price Will Win

Customers always crave heavy discounts and exclusive deals. Low-priced products are again dominating this holiday shopping season, as no one hates gifts and low prices for the products they purchase. More customers are abandoning retailers offering high-priced products, adding shipping charges, limited products, and additional costs to their purchases. Online shoppers get attached to brands offering free shipping services, proffering discounts, shopping coupons, and more.

Accessibility of a unique shopping experience and unlimited series of products motivate shoppers to make more purchases. Exclusivity matters a lot for digital-native shoppers. It also shows that brands delivering exclusive shopping experiences are availing more profit than from previous years. Many data also reveal significant sales growth of brands delivering free shipping services.

Retailers should leverage advanced pricing solutions by evaluating product prices offered by competitors, understanding shoppers' preferences, personalized discounts, and promoting their services on different channels. Along with this, it's vital for eCommerce platforms to lower their shipping cost or charge nothing. These will lead them to the peak of the holiday shopping season.

5. Social Media Influencers Will Impact Shoppers' Behavior

Social commerce contributes a lot to the holiday shopping season, as more than 50% of online buyers are likely to make their purchases from Instagram or TikTok. Retailers and brands having a strong hold on social media channels can avail of great benefits by utilizing social commerce trends. Research also shows that a large population of Gen Z shoppers is using social media platforms influenced by social media influencers. Brands are also leveraging social media influencers as they help them in building brand loyalty, increase web traffic, and more sales.

During the last holiday season, influencers played a great role in boosting the BFCM campaign, so this year, there's a high chance that brands will adopt the strategy. Contents created by social media influencers highly impact customers' shopping behaviors and are likely to turn customers toward the brands they promote. Consumers also stated that influencers help them discover exclusive offers, gifts, and more in the holiday season.

Brands can tailor a social media marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition. Recently, YouTube has been voted as one of the most trusted social media platforms, motivating people to shop more. Brands leverage other social media channels, such as TikTok and Instagram, as visual contents are popular among shoppers. In this holiday season, brands can allow customers to shop through DMs with the help of social media influencers.

Bottom Line

The holiday shopping season comes once a year, so it's a great chance for brands to dig more. Make your goal simple; just stay ahead of trends and enhance the shopping experience of your customers.

Harness the power of ecommerce as it ultimately increases your holiday sales. Start everything early to thrive your holiday sales by understanding your customers, inventory planning, bestowing competitive prices, giving customers a seamless and personalized shopping experience, and improving fulfillment. To read more interesting topics on eCommerce and dropshipping, visit DSers Blog page.