Study: Retailers should target these two types of holiday shopper

Connected customers are one part of a successful holiday season.

According to analysis of purchase data from banking ad platform Cardlytics, customers who shop with a retailer both in-store and online spend twice as much during the holidays as those who favor one channel. However, these valuable omnichannel customers only comprise 10.3% of the current retail customer base, which Cardlytics advises is a significant opportunity for brands to capture additional holiday spend.

In addition, retailers should focus on driving repeat business. On average, Cardlytics data shows that repeat customers drive 70% of holiday sales and spend 43% more than new customers acquired during the holiday season.

Other interesting findings include:

• From 2017 to 2018, brick-and-mortar’s share of spend declined 1.6% to 78.6%. Meanwhile, online-only retailers’ share increased 1.3% to 12.9%. 
• Holiday spend increased 2% from 2017 to 2018. Convenient benefits, such as free shipping, seemingly infinite choices, and buy-online-pickup-in-store options resulted in a larger number of transactions and higher spend overall, but they also led to a 0.7% decrease in individual basket size.
• Consumers are spending more consistently throughout the months of October through December, instead of saving their shopping for the week of Thanksgiving or the week leading into Christmas. In 2018, nearly 40% of total holiday spend occurred in the four weeks leading into Black Friday

“As shopping preferences continue to change, it’s important for retailers to understand the trends,” said Cardlytics’ chief marketing officer,Dani Cushion. “Marketers typically have a clear view into how their customers are shopping with them, but it’s difficult to see how they are shopping with their competitors.”