2020 Holiday Season: Are You Ready? BONUS Free E-Book!

For most retailers, "the holidays" is the busiest time of year. And the most high-stakes. In 2020, on top of the stresses of a "normal" holiday shopping season, retailers are also dealing with a pandemic and recession.

According to the National Retail Federation, the holidays account for about 20% of all annual retail sales. It's enough to send any e-Commerce manager into a panic.

How do you exceed your customers' online shopping needs in a year when the world has been turned upside down?

It won't be easy. But with the right tools and insights, you'll be able to weather the storm that is the 2020 holiday shopping season.

We can help.

Let us tell you a little bit about:

How COVID-19 has affected the economy and consumer behavior

We're seeing an unprecedented increase in the number of people shopping online. If you want to own the 2020 holiday shopping season, you can't cut important programs like customer research and engagement. That will only set you further behind. Instead, you want to focus your investments on initiatives that enable you to flourish now and in the future, when the economy stabilizes.

The mistakes brands made in past recessions

In past recessions, the first thing brands did when sales started to slow was slashing their marketing and development budgets. But this time around, such blanket budget-cutting can do more harm than good. This time around (as compared with the crisis of 2008), it's clear you need to work fast and be willing to pivot to keep up with the economy and its impact on shoppers' needs.

Changes you need to keep up with what will surely be a unique holiday season

This holiday season, your goal is to give shoppers an online experience that's as good as or ideally better than what they'll find shopping in-store. On top of that, you have to do it in a highly shareable way.

How you accomplish this will depend on your resources, budget, and current digital offerings.

What you can expect from the 2020 holiday season is seeing more online shoppers, no more 11th-hour shopping sprees, mobile will continue to rule, shoppers will want the option of picking up orders in-store(among the most important things).

Three things you must make this holiday season

To ensure you're ready for the deluge of online shoppers this holiday season, here are three changes you must make to your digital storefront right away.

Optimize your site for speed. Every second your page fails to load decreases conversion rates by 20%, according to splitit.com.
Bring back layaway (sort of). The COVID-19 recession has hit millennials and Gen Z the hardest. These consumers are particularly wary of taking on more debt, according to splitit.com. Consider rolling out a buy-now-pay-later option to help them make purchases without putting more stress on their credit cards. Unlike the layaway solutions of yore, which required the consumer to pay off their debt before picking up their purchase, shoppers can get their goods right away and pay off the balance in monthly installments. Retailers get paid instantly, creating a win-win solution for brands and shoppers alike.
Make the most of your data. Improving your online experience will not just make customers' lives easier, it will also unlock a treasure trove of data that can provide profit-driving insights. To make the most of this information, invest in dynamic forecasting technologies that can help you anticipate customers' needs and respond in real-time.

Do you think there's more to it? We do too.

The information above is only a small piece of the puzzle of what you can do now. We want to show you the rest of the picture. Download our holiday e-book, "Accelerating E-Commerce," to receive 50 pages of goodness filled with structured information and bits of advice from top industry experts (including PayPal, Adobe, Vertex, Klaviyo, and Signifyd).

Let’s achieve your business goals together!

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