Holiday Shopping Online in 2022 is All About Early Bird Shoppers & Value-Driven Deals

Festivals have different meanings to different people. For kids, it is the holiday time. For young adults and families, it is the time to party, go shopping, and attend family reunions. While for merchants, it is that time of the year when they can genuinely change the facets of their business. Do you know what the online holiday shopping in 2022 is slightly different from the previous years?

How is the eCommerce ecosystem behaving to this year’s holiday shopping, and how will it prepare for 2023? What will change? What remains unchanged? If you sell products online with Shopify then this blog will be helpful to know everything about how and what about the online holiday shopping, along with a budgeted way to revamp your Shopify store during festivals.

Holidays, Shopping & Shoppers – What Remains Unchanged?

Last year was the golden era for eCommerce because shoppers quickly adopted it. Be it shopping for essentials, groceries, or during the holidays, a lot of shopping happened online in 2022.

As we present this blog, offline retails is reviving, and customers have started visiting outlets. This year’s holiday shopping is a good blend of online and offline modes of shopping. But are people willing to spend just like in the old times? Let’s see.

The excitement of holiday shopping is wrapped with inflation fears and disturbances bin Russia & Ukraine. Long story short, the ups and downs will be there. Some things will change, while some will remain constant. But, as a Shopify merchant, what is your approach to hustle and convert visitors into customers?

The verdict is that holiday shopping online in 2022 is based oninformed purchase decisions, value-driven deals, and products.Sounds good right? But below are the things whose impact is being felt otherwise.

What’s Different in Shopping Online During the 2022 Holiday Time?

1. Inflationary Situation –

In 2022, eCommerce grew 3x in a single year. People have started shopping online during holidays early on due to inflationary glitches. Below is a chart showing region-wise inflation rate across the globe. Inflation is a situation where purchasing power is lost due to rising prices for goods and services.

Last year, at a 1.23% inflation rate, the US shopped for goods worth $886.7 billion from the internet. This year, online shopping during the holidays is forecasted to touch more than $260 billion. This means people will shop online during the holidays, a bit early (and with less propensity to spend on certain products).

To sum up –Consumers will continue shopping online during holidays. How and when they shop, might change as per situations. This year (too), customers started shopping early in October. With cyber weekends followed by Christmas just around the corner, there is still more to the online holiday shopping. If you are targeting these occasions, you should revamp, speed up, and run ads on Google Ad network to get maximum visibility.

2. Save Two Pennies. Spend a Quarter –

It is a fact that during inflationary situations, people spend (comparatively) less on recreational activities, shopping (for not-so-necessary goods), and the likewise. But does this mean that people’s zeal to shop online during holidays has come to an end? Not really.

We might see record-breaking participation from middle and high-income households ($50K-100K). But where are these households most likely to spend?

Product categories like sporting goods, books, home, and garden will most likely to trend during this year’s holiday season. This year, we might see a drop in the apparel, accessories, and electronics category.

To sum up – It is habitual to save more and spend less. But while the world fears inflation, this habit becomes need of the hour. This is why people prefer to shop a bit early. It saves them from rising costs and inventory issues.

As a Shopify merchant, this is the right time to invest in your storefront. Why don’t you connect with our team of store experts and discuss the budgeted ways to optimize, speed-up and promote your storefront?

3. Consumers will Shop Online During Holiday Season a Bit Early –

A survey found that 31% of shoppers are willing to shop online during holidays early than wait for the festivals to arrive. This is not the first time however.

Another survey found that in 2011, 51% of the surveyed population shopped online by early November. It is the era of early bird shoppers, and their share has steadily gone up to 61%.

Holiday shopping will be different this year with inflation around 0-year highs. Consumers are still spending, but they are being thoughtful, especially about where each dollar goes! – Ted Rossman (Industry Analyst at Bankrate)

4. It is the Time of Coupons & Discount Codes –

Knowing that shoppers will save more than spend, you need to provide value-driven deals to your customers who shop online during holidays. A study found out that 54% of the respondents will use credit cards to shop online while 3 in 5 people look out for coupons more than the products.

To sum up –This year’s holiday shopping is all about how you add value to your products. You can achieve this through product bundling, free delivery options, etc. Adding coupons and discounts works like a cherry on the cake.

Be sure that you do everything in a balanced way. Otherwise, instead of adding value to products, you might end up as a “cheap and discounted” Shopify merchant. Connect with Shopify store experts who will assist you with shipping and payment setup and proper upselling and cross-selling bundling techniques.

So this is what online shopping during holidays of 2022 looks like. Let’s get you acquainted with tweaks, tips, and strategies to help you through some of the biggest celebrations during this time of the year.

State of Online Shopping During Holidays of 2022 & Beyond –

Holiday shopping during 2022 is a blend of offline retail and online storefronts. Butwhat are people most likely to shop for?The answer to this question is hidden in how consumers shop online. Below is the foolproof list of the best products you can sell online during the festive season to become your customer’s favorite merchant.

Add Spooky-ness During Halloween –

Halloween is all about bright streets with colorful lights, crowded with kids wearing spooky costumes visiting home after home for trick-or-treats. But we already know this, what’s the point? The answer to how you will add spookiness to your storefront is hidden in the above lines only.

Find more statistics at Statista

You surely will prefer ordering from an authentic Chinese restaurant rather than from a (un)authentic Chinese restaurant. Same goes while people shop online.

Spice up your Shopify store with Halloween-themed banners, and a spine-tingling dark-color theme to win visitor’s attention.

For intent-based shoppers, conduct keyword research for SEO-friendly product descriptions, announcement sections, and other web pages.

Next time when you plan to run Halloween deals, make sure you place countdown timer, mention remaining units and estimated delivery time. This will spark a sense of urgency among visitors. Here are 9 tips that worked like a charm for Shopify merchants during the spook season.

Be Grateful on Thanksgiving & Get Ready for Cyber Weekend –

As the world gracefully sail through November, spooky time too takes a turn. Holiday shopping in 2022 was at it’s peak during October and November. Next year, make sure that you start your preparations early. If you are eyeing on Christmas, you can still make good bucks.

A lot of family gathering, parties, shopping for loved ones goes on during this time of the year. Small businesses can plan to go big if they prepare their storefront a bit before-hand.

The game is all about maintaining, and managing your store’s elements in a way that everything loads within 5 seconds. You can hire Shopify developers and improve your store’s health on Google’s core web vitals and lighthouse.

9 Trends You Must Keep an Eye on in 2023 –

In less than 30 days, we will big farewell to 2022 and welcome 2023 with zeal and optimism. Just like a new year brings news hope, and resolutions, it also brings opportunities, and potential trends to tap on.

Here are 9 trends that are most likely to define how people shop online and how brands interact with their customers.

1. Shoppers are more conscious.
2. Personalized shopping experience.
3. Customers are price sensitive.
4. Hybrid omnichannel.
5. Holiday shopping starts early.
6. Social commerce.
7. Shopper-friendly delivery & payment options.
8. Merchants should think beyond single-selling model.

Knowing what the upcoming trends are is as important as following an approach to inculcate these trends in your retail strategy.

While People Shop Online During Holidays, Convert Visitors into Customers with CedCommerce Experts –

Compared to previous years, 2022 holiday shopping might not be record breaking. But this should not stop merchants form scaling their Shopify storefront. You can hire CedCommerce Experts to convert visitors into repeat customers when you plan to go big next time during the festive season. Here is how our team of web developers will help you build a festive-ready Shopify storefront –

Revamp Your Storefront –

Your Shopify store will be just another online store if you don’t think about customizing it’s touchpoints from time to time. Ask yourself, what’s so unique about your storefront? Then add a shot of uniqueness to its with our team of Shopify developers.

• Homepage, product page, collection page development and setup.
• Shopping cart development and customization.
• Custom logo, and store banners.
• Custom app development.
• Theme customization.
• Cross-device responsiveness.
• Use metafields, blocks, and sections to amplify your products.
• Display variants as separate products.
• Add hover effect to product pages.
• Add filters to collection pages.
• Post launch assistance.

Improve Page-Load Time –

Imagine yourself standing in a long queue at a billing counter. You will be bored to hell and if the line moves like a sloth then chances of you getting irritated gets even more. The same happens when someone visits your Shopify store.

If shoppers come across a storefront that loads slowly, hangs up every now and then, and hampers shopping experience then they will look for other vendors. And shoppers have a lot of choices.

To make sure that your Shopify store loads within 5 seconds, you need to work on suggestions as per Google’s core web vitals and lighthouse results. Our Shopify developers will improve your store’s load time by doing the following things –

• Compress JavaScripts and CSS files.
• Improve liquid rendering time.
• Handle third-party scripts.
• Improve TBT (Total Blocking Time).
• Preload assets wherever required.
• Apply CDN wherever required.
• Load fonts smoothly.
• Implement AMP pages if required.
• Apply lazy-loading wherever required.
• Perform a thorough audit before handing over your store.
• Share the report with suggestions to maintain the same speed throughout.
• Expert guidance is always a message away.

Leverage Google Advertising Services Like a Pro –

Promoting your store is as important as building, revamping, and optimizing. Remember, when people shop online during holidays (and otherwise), most of their queries begin with Google where shopping ads drive 76% of searches.

Promoting your Shopify store through Google advertising network gives you the required push to your business. It is all about being present on the internet exactly where your customers are. While people shop online during holidays, how about your get in touch with our PPC managers and give your business the right push it needs?

Summing Up –

If you think that shoppers will come on their own to shop from your storefront then you’re living in the 90s. Tables have turned around. If you want to go big during prime shopping season then you need to stand up to your customer’s expectations. A typical customer expects the following things before placing an order –

1. Your store should have a product they are searching for.
2. Whenever shoppers click on your store’s link, it should load within 5 seconds (or less).
3. You need to reserve a space in your customer’s psyche.

If you want the above 3 things well in space in your retail business model, then don’t forget to connect with our Shopify store experts to go big while shoppers shop online during holidays.