Here's a heads-​up on holiday retailing strategies. Former strategy and innovation executive, Kim Garretson, shares data from a frequent shoppers study by e‑tailing on consumer holiday shopping behaviors in 2015, alerting retailers to consumer responses in planning for the upcoming season.

MyAlerts and the research firm e‑Tailing Group surveyed 1,200 frequent e‑commerce shoppers ahead of their holiday shopping, providing some early insights:

Consumer Holiday Shopping Habits

• 43% answered that they usually will wait for sales when first viewing products
• 37% said if the price is fair, they usually buy soon
• 50% said they always or frequently would opt-​in to price drop email alerts, with another 37% saying they sometimes would opt-​in to price alerts

New businesses will need help managing their holiday campaigns! AudienceSCAN found 5.7% of U.S. adults set personal goals to start a business this year. Help these newbies succeed with these tips and strategies.

Consumers encountering out-​of-​stocks represents $600 billion in losses each year according to the IHL Group, says the report. When the questions posed were about availability for Out-​Of-​Stock products, nearly every retailer answered: “We don’t know. Please keep checking back.” Yet, according to the 2015 eTailing Group research, when respondents were asked what they did when encountering out-of-stocks:

• 50% said they immediately go to a search engine to search for the specific product available elsewhere
• 43% said they immediately redirect to a competitive retailer’s Web site
• 66% said they would use the option for back-​in-​stock email alerts

17.8% of Business Starters will attend Small business workshop/​expos, according to AudienceSCAN research. Be sure to demonstrate how your digital marketing services can help them get off the ground at shows like this.

Email Behavior

Retailers filled consumer's email inboxes with 26% more generic email blasts last holiday. There was more than a 10% drop in revenue per email.

• 47% said they often unsubscribe when getting too many emails from retailers they rarely shop
• 43% said too many emails from even their favorite retailers cause them to consider unsubscribing
• 24% said they rarely read any generic retail emails and always delete them
• 12% said with these emails appearing on their mobile devices, they ignore these more than when on their desktops

AudienceSCAN reported 63.3% of Business Starters themselves took action based on emailed ads or newsletters they received, so make them consider the power of this marketing medium by reminding them of their own usage.

Retailers report Email alert options they are adding to their sites this year, near the Add To Cart buttons:

• 80% said price drop alerts
• 78% said back-​in-​stock alerts
• 76% liked the option for alerts on wish list items
• 66% favored alerts for products they shared on social media
• 57% said alerts from their favorite brands launching new products.

Data Privacy Concerns of Retailers

• 56% said they are increasingly concerned about personal data collection
• 17% said they have started to use blocking software to prevent data collection

"30 top retailers, including the biggest in home improvement, consumer electronics and apparel, are rolling out MyAlerts this holiday, partly in response to this data," Garretson said. "Among the reports on response rates and incremental revenue, some retailers are reporting that the triggered alerts to this first party dataset are outperforming other marketing channels and campaigns by 3X."

AudienceSCAN data is available as part of a subscription to AdMall for Agencies, or with the SalesFuel API. Media companies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.