A Coveo survey has revealed that 45% of consumers will begin holiday shopping earlier than past holiday peak periods, in search of deals amidst rising costs. It has also shown that shopping is not set to slow down, despite economic concerns, with 80% of people planning to shop as much, or more this holiday season, in comparison to last year.
The 2022 Holiday Shopping Report: Spending Trends & Impact
Coveo (TSX:CVO), a leader in relevance platforms that helps to transform search, recommendations, and personalization within digital experiences, announced a new report titled, 2022 Holiday Shopping Report: Spending Trends & Impact, which unveils findings from a summer 2022 survey of 4,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers. Conducted by Coveo in partnership with Arlington Research, the report provides analysis of shopper sentiment and plans for the upcoming holiday season and reveals surprising trends and macro and microeconomic factors impacting this holiday shopping season.
Findings from Coveo’s 2022 Holiday Shopping Report: Spending Trends & Impact
Coveo’s 2022 Holiday Shopping Report: Spending Trends & Impact has revealed key areas for retailers to capitalize on, including utilising physical retail spaces, organising logistics and motivating factors that go beyond discounts.
A large majority of respondents (80%) said that they plan to shop the same or more during the upcoming holiday season compared with past years. Interestingly, nearly one in two shoppers (45%) said they will start their shopping earlier than usual to find deals and discounts given the rising cost and availability of goods.
“Despite the rising cost of living, we continue to see strong interest in shopping for the upcoming holidays, though brands should note the anticipated behavioral changes related to shopping timeframes, generational mindsets, and expectations for intertwined online-offline customer experiences,” Brian McGlynn, General Manager of commerce at Coveo. “As economic conditions continue to fluctuate, we believe retailers must keep up with shopper behavior trends and test assumptions to keep the customer experiences relevant at all times and the focus on profitability and performance will be even more necessitated.”
The survey unveiled several insights on current shopper sentiment and behavior trends, including:
Having a physical retail presence may help with ecommerce sales
While 54% of consumers said they are likely to look at a product online and buy it in-store, an almost identical number (53%) reported being likely to look at a product in-store and buy it online. Physical stores driving growth across all channels will continue throughout 2022, according to multiple retail experts.
Uncertain logistics and restrictive return policies negatively impact conversions
Abandonment and bounce rates are always significant challenges for retailers, and according to Coveo’s survey, 42% of shoppers explicitly said they will leave a site if shipping options are limited or they don’t have a buy online pick-up instore option (BOPIS). In addition to this, 35% of respondents said they are turned off by restrictive returns policies.
Generational differences in shopping attitudes with Gen Z as main standout
There were notable patterns across different generations that retailers should prepare for as the seasonal peaks approach. Specifically, when asked about brands between this year and last, compared to other generations, Gen Z is more apt to buy luxury goods online (28% vs. 15% overall), more loyal to brands they shopped last year (41% vs. 23% overall), and more likely to factor sustainability into buying decisions (64% vs. 25% overall).
Brand loyalty continues to reign, especially with older generations
Millennials (58%), Gen Xers (67%), Baby Boomers (75%), and the Silent Generation (77%) all stayed loyal to the brands they liked in the last year.
Motivating factors go beyond discounts
Approximately two-thirds (67%) of people surveyed this summer are interested in product recommendations, tailored offers, discounts, and promotions. This, combined with the likelihood of spreading out purchases to take advantage of deals, means retailers should note that although many consumers are shopping more online, it may be more challenging to translate the interest into a higher Average Order Value (AOV).
View the full 2022 Holiday Shopping Report: Spending Trends & Impact
The complete results of the consumer survey reveal spending trends and impacts that retailers can use to their advantage. Click here to download the full report.
About Coveo Solutions
We believe that relevance and personalization are critical for businesses to win in the new digital experience economy, to serve people the way they expect, and that applied AI is an imperative. Coveo is a market-leading AI-powered relevance platform. Our SaaS-native, multi-tenant platform injects search, recommendations, and personalization solutions into digital experiences. We provide solutions for commerce, service, website, and workplace applications. Our solutions are designed to provide tangible value to our customers by helping drive conversion and revenue growth, increase profitability, reduce customer support costs, increase customer satisfaction and website engagement, and improve employee proficiency and satisfaction. Coveo is a trademark of Coveo Solutions, Inc.
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