The holiday season is in full swing, and retailers are looking to find and capture consumer demand to close out the season on a high note. Jane Butler, vice president of retail ecommerce sales at Google, talks to Fairchild Studio about how retailers can meet the customer’s mindset and harness the power of Google’s AI-powered tools to translate interest to purchase intent.
Fairchild Studio: What is the mindset of the holiday shopper, and how does this change over the course of the season?
Related Articles
Jane Butler: Throughout the holiday season, shoppers move between 4 distinct mindsets: deliberate, deal-seeking, determined and devoted.
Starting in July, consumers are deliberate, carefully curating the perfect holiday gift list for loved ones and planning out their own personal wish list. From October to November, they’re deal-seeking, hunting down the best quality and value gifts available. By December, they become determined to cross off the rest of their shopping list in time for their holiday celebrations. And finally, from December 25th through January, they become devoted as they continue to shop past the traditional holiday season to treat themselves with the gifts they didn’t receive over the holiday season.
By understanding these mindsets and using AI-powered tools to show up at each stage of the journey, retailers and brands are well positioned to maximize profitable sales, meet the omni-channel shopper wherever they’re shopping, and connect with your highest value customers – before, during and after peak season.
Fairchild Studio: These mindsets are a great way to help retailers meet shoppers in the right moment, with the right message. As retailers think about delivering their brand value to differentiate themselves from their competition, are there key channels to capture consumers’s attention during these moments of discovery?
J.B.: Expanding beyond traditional commerce strategies is critical for retailers to reach these consumers, create inspiration, drive discovery and create demand. Video is a powerful medium to unlock these brand experiences for shoppers.
YouTube is a leading shopping destination, with online video shoppers 3.9x more likely to start on YouTube than any other platform.1 This makes it an essential channel to engage with high value customers throughout the entire year. And even more importantly, it gives shoppers the confidence to make quicker decisions and keep their purchases. YouTube’s influence cuts down the average online video shopper’s journey by six days2 and 93% of respondents who shop on YouTube reported that they kept their purchases.3 Tapping into the power of YouTube will supercharge your ability to connect with shoppers in a meaningful way.
Fairchild Studio: The consumer shopping experience is becoming more and more fragmented, so finding the shopper where they are at can be difficult – even if they are ready to purchase. As we go into the final weeks of the year, how can retailers and brands create a more seamless shopping experience across channels?
J.B.: Determined shoppers are in crunch time. They are using all resources available to complete their shopping – including using their own spare time. Shoppers have high intent and are ready to purchase now.
In the U.S., digital plays an even bigger role this time of year. The average number of digital resources that shoppers use increases significantly after the Cyber period.4 This is when your holiday marketing strategy can shine. AI-powered tools like Video Action campaigns and Performance Max campaigns can help you reach these shoppers across touchpoints and in the moments they’re ready to buy. This will also set your brand up for the post-holiday devoted shopper that continues to shop for gifts, deals, and for self-gifting moments after December 25.
Fairchild Studio: As we think ahead, any advice on how retailers should build momentum going into 2024?
J.B.: Don’t lose focus or slow down once the holidays arrive. According to a Mastercard credit card analysis conducted by BCG, U.S. consumers spent over $47 billion in retail (excluding Auto, Grocery, and Restaurants) in the two weeks after December 25.5 And search volume for gift-related queries, like “gifts” and “presents,” remained high in January 2023 — a 45% and 15% increase compared to the early holiday months of September and October 2022, respectively.6 So continue to be present and ready to capture demand.
Post-holidays are also the perfect time to grow loyalty and profits with both existing and new customers. One of the most important places to accomplish this is with your apps. According to data.ai, the two weeks starting Dec. 25 were the biggest iOS and Google Play combined app download weeks of last year. App campaigns help you get your app in front of consumers while they are in “download mode” as they set up their new phone. 87% of retailers agree that their app users are more loyal and have higher lifetime value than nonusers. Moreover, 83% of U.S. retailers agree that app customers tend to make more purchases compared to non-app customers.7
1 Google/Material, Role of Video in Shopper Journey, US, 2023, N=2,420 Online survey, Americans 18+ who shopped using an online video platform, Aug – Sep 2023.
2 Google/Material, Role of Video in Shopping Journey, US, 2023, N=2,420 Online survey, Americans 18+ who used an online video platform to shop, Aug – Sep 2023.
3 Google/Talk Shoppe, 2022 US Video Research Study. Among YouTube Users n=605.
4 Google/Ipsos, Holiday Shopping Study, Oct 13, 2022 – Jan 4, 2023, Online survey, Americans 18+ who conducted holiday shopping activities in past two days n=8,467.
5 Google/BCG, Holiday Spending Analysis, U.S., analysis of U.S. Mastercard credit card data, retail categories included were Apparel, Department Store, Electronics, Home Furniture and Furnishings, Home Improvement, Jewelry, Dec. 26, 2022–Jan. 8, 2022.
6 Google Internal Data, U.S., Sept. 1, 2022–Jan. 31, 2023.
7 Google/Ipsos, U.S., total marketer data (n=150) are app decision-makers (Marketing or IT) at medium and large retailers, March 2023.