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Lessons from Holiday Shopping
2014 — What You Need to Know
for 2015
Yory Wurmser
Retail Analyst
March 26, 2015
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Agenda
What happened in the 2014 holiday season?
What should you expect in the 2015 holiday season?
Which four trends from the 2014 holiday season will
drive ecommerce growth in 2015?
What was the best way to reach mobile consumers
during the holidays?
How is the online shopping calendar changing?
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What happened in 2014?
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The 2014 holiday season was moderately good
overall in the US, but was very strong online
16.0%
3.5%
Total Retail Ecommerce
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18.1% of 2014’s total retail sales occurred
during November and December
$850.58 billion in total retail sales
$72.03 billion in ecommerce sales
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Why wasn’t 2014 stronger overall?
Downward pressure
Low labor market
participation
Weak median
income growth
Rising healthcare
costs
Gas stations
Upward pressure
Strong job
growth
High consumer
confidence
Rising stock
market
Cheap gas
Source: rgbstock.com
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Core retail grew more strongly than total retail,
which was dragged down by gas stations
NRF data shows
4.0% growth for
2014, up from
3.1% in 2013
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Foot traffic was down 7.1% between
Thanksgiving 2014 and January 3, 2015
“ There is this shopper that has greater
intent to purchase than we’ve seen
before. They come to the stores more
researched than they have before.”
—Chitra Balasubramanian, head of business
analytics at RetailNext
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Overall retail
performance
was
consistent
with previous
years, but
ecommerce
growth was
the strongest
since 2011
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What to expect in 2015
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Holiday 2015 overall will broadly follow 2014
patterns
14.4%
3.2%
Total Retail Ecommerce
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Ecommerce will make a big jump in percentage
of Q4 2015 total retail sales
Ecommerce’s
share of retail
sales always rises
in Q4, but 2015’s
spike will be
larger than usual
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Ecommerce will approach 10% of total holiday
retail sales in 2015
Growth of
holiday season
ecommerce is
not slowing
6.80%7.60%
8.50%
9.40%
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
2012 2013 2014 2015
Retail Ecommerce Holiday Sales as % of Total Holiday Retail Sales
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Trends that emerged in 2014 will drive
ecommerce in 2015
1. Mobile traffic and sales growth
2. Better online and offline integration
3. Improvements in fulfillment
4. A wider online shopping calendar
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Trend #1:
Mobile sales and influence
grew
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Traffic from mobile devices increased more than
expected
“ Mobile traffic in general jumped a lot
faster, a lot higher, than anybody
really expected. Our mobile traffic
increased by 78% vs. the previous
year.”
—Emily Pfeiffer, VP of brand development at
Berkshire Blanket
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Smartphones had strong growth in orders
generated, traffic and revenue
Smartphone
orders grew at
twice the pace
of tablet orders
MarketLive saw
mobile revenues
increase 111%
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Mobile traffic was nearly half of online shopping
traffic
44.6%
of online traffic during holiday 2014 came from mobile devices
Source: IBM, “Online Retail Holiday Shopping Recap Report 2014”
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Smartphone conversion rates still lagged far
behind desktop and tablet conversion rates
Only 9.1% of
digital sales
came on
smartphones
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Mobile sales increased but still accounted for
roughly 1 in 5 digital holiday sales
For 2014 as a
whole,
eMarketer
estimates that
19.0% of retail
ecommerce
sales occurred
on mobile
devices
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Why the big jump in mobile
commerce this year?
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Reason No. 1: More mobile shoppers and buyers
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Number of US mobile shoppers grew by
25 million in 2014
150.4 million
mobile shoppers
by end of 2014
171.0 million
mobile shoppers
by end of 2015
Increase
in mobile
shoppers:
+25.4M
in 1 year
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Number of US mobile buyers growing almost as
quickly as number of mobile shoppers
104.8 million
mobile buyers
by end of 2014
121.8 million
mobile buyers
by end of 2015
Increase
in mobile
buyers:
+22.1M
in 1 year
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Reason No. 2: Better user interfaces led to more
conversions
Larger screen sizes
More responsive design
Easier payments
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Larger screen size correlates with lower cart
abandonment and higher conversion rates
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Traffic share in North America from large phones
more than doubled in 2014
Website traffic
from large
smartphones
rose from 6.9%
to 17.9% in
12 months
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2014 holiday sales saw big growth in phablets
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Responsive design is spreading rapidly …
“ The biggest trend happening in our
industry right now is responsive
design. It’s taking off, and it’s taking
off very quickly. … So what’s driving
the mobile trend, really, is better
mobile design.”
—Ken Burke, CEO of MarketLive
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Responsive
design
performs
better
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… But responsive design is only part of the
solution
“ Understanding the customer
journey across device type and
adapting to it from a customer
experience perspective, and even
from a marketing perspective, is
absolutely critical. … Responsive
design is great … but that’s only the
tip of the iceberg.”
—Don Delzell, director of online at Sports
Chalet
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Easier
checkout
is the leading
factor that
would make
people spend
more on their
phones
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New payment options have potential to simplify
mcommerce, but are still lightly used
Google Wallet led with an
18% adoption rate in
December 2014
Apple Pay was used by
4% of US internet users
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Recap: Mobile conversions increased this
holiday season because …
More mobile shoppers and buyers
Better interfaces
– Bigger screens
– More responsive design
– Easier payment options
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Trend #2:
Better integration between
digital and offline shopping
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Consumers
have
integrated
their online
and offline
shopping
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Consumers expect seamless integration
between online and offline shopping
“ Mobile has evolved to become the remote
control for … the in-store experience of a
brand. Consumers expect that the mobile
[app] that a retailer or brand is offering
them can help them navigate the store
experience, and can help them do so in a
personalized way.”
—Maya Mikhailov, co-founder and EVP of client
strategy at GPShopper
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Consumers turned to mobile on Black Friday
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Most successful retailer apps anticipated
customer journey in the store
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Mobile
generated more
than 50% of
website traffic
for some big US
retailers in
December 2014
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Email was one of the best ways to reach
consumers on the go in holiday 2014
“ The key to winning this holiday
season, at least as far as online
shopping goes, was using email
marketing effectively.”
—Netta Kivilis, head of marketing at Custora
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Email generated a larger percentage of holiday
season digital sales in 2014
Up 1.7 percentage points
for the season overall
compared to 2013
During the Thanksgiving
to Cyber Monday period,
email drove 23.1% of
sales—top among
marketing channels
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Trend #3:
Improved fulfillment
boosted ecommerce
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Holiday 2013: Missed deliveries made headlines
Midwest snowstorms hit
FedEx and UPS hubs
Roughly 33% of major
etailers tracked by Stella
Service missed deliveries
UPS delivered only 83% of
holiday express packages on
time, according to Shipmatrix
Image source: Shutterstock
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Fulfillment problems were largely eliminated
during the 2014 holiday season
98%
of holiday express packages arrived on time
Source: Shipmatrix
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In-store pick-up increased in 2014, but retailers
still lag behind consumer interest
“ Buy online and pick-up
in-store is growing, which is
good, although it’s not
growing as fast as it should.
… Consumers are demanding
it more than retailers are
providing it.”
—Ken Burke, CEO of MarketLive
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Trend #4:
Online shopping calendar
spreading out
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During the
2014 holiday
season, free
shipping
offers peaked
in early
November
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Holiday 2014’s online shopping surge was
earlier, spurred by big discounts
Steepest
discounts on
Thanksgiving
(Nov. 27)
Discounts on
Monday and
Tuesday before
Thanksgiving
exceeded Cyber
Monday
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Biggest online
shopping day
was still
Cyber Monday,
but gap
between it
and Black
Friday shrank
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Biggest sales increase of 2014 holiday season
was during weekend of December 20–21: 36%
Increased in-store pick-up
Later shipping cutoffs: Zappos, Apple and Nordstrom all
had December 23 shipping cut-off dates
Extended free shipping: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
offered free shipping into Christmas week
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Takeaways
In 2014:
US retail ecommerce sales grew 16.0% year over year
More mobile shoppers, bigger screens and better interfaces
combined to increase the impact of mcommerce
Email played an increasingly important role in holiday
marketing
Fulfillment improved
The digital holiday season spread out
In 2015, US ecommerce sales are expected to rise 14.4%
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Yory Wurmser
Lessons Learned from Holiday
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to Know for 2015
Holiday Shopping Preview
Omnichannel Trends 2015: Mobile Is the New Retail Hub
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