Online Shopping Trends during the holiday season in the United States 2019

Shopping has changed so much over the last decade or so. More and more people have moved on to shopping for things online rather than walking into a store. Taking nothing away from retail stores, it is imperative that we note that online shopping has certainly taken center stage. This is largely due to the advent of computers and smartphones, not to mention the ubiquity of the internet.

In the United States alone, the holiday season recorded north of $126 billion worth of online purchases in 2018, reported insights from Adobe Analytics. Online retailers are surely not complaining because for them, business is booming. It would make sense to take a leaf out of their book and start selling on e-commerce sites.

Try For Free

So far, in the 2019 holiday season, online shopping has increased exponentially. Black Friday 2019 saw an abundance of mobile shoppers splurge on gadgets, clothing, accessories and so on. This trend is likely to go on at least till the end of this year. Voice-activated search, a by-product of the rise in digital assistant devices at people’s homes, had made it easier for them to look for things online. One report by Practical Ecommerce suggests that up to 3% of holiday sales are brought about by voice search. The “click and collect” variant of shopping has been another trend that has driven sales. Due to high crowds and the general rush, many customers choose to make a purchase online and collect the product at the store at a later time. 2019 is seeing some of the best sales numbers in mobile shopping and you could emphasize on them.

To keep up with online shopping trends, the right way forward is to have a digital presence of your product or service. It is clear that people find online shopping more comfortable. Especially in this holiday season, and the upcoming Boxing Day sale, which have dramatic price reductions and amazing deals, millions of people will shop using their phones and computers. Moving into the competitive online market can be highly beneficial if you play your cards right. Your goal should be to sell more than usual and with much convenience. Opting to make use of CRM retail software is undoubtedly a smart move.

What customers look for in websites are not just discounted prices. An online survey conducted by AutoGrow revealed that online shoppers tend to want:

• • Good site performance
  • Great visuals
  • Ease of browsing through products
  • Seamless website navigation
  • Faster checkout options
  • Relevant product recommendations

1. To boost your sales numbers, you need to, first of all, have a fully functional website which runs seamlessly and is updated with new features periodically.
2. Second, you ought to subscribe for a CRM platform that can help you manage the deluge of orders that come in during the holidays. A sales CRM does more than just curate orders, it can help you get a hold of your entire operation with much ease. Getting a record of any transaction is a simple search away.
3. Third, focus on both mobile and web shopping equally. More than half of online shoppers use their phones to place their orders.

Having a CRM in place definitely covers your customer support requirements as well. Cancellations, returns, refunds and other such issues can be handled comfortable on the CRM. Incoming tickets via call, email, social media or chat get created automatically. Providing speedy resolutions to your customers will obviously help you retain them. So, without the help of technology, you cannot hope to handle a high number of enquiries and all that heavy traffic.

Giving your customers the option to connect with you using live chat will make them trust your brand. Chat provides you the chance to use AI powered bots to respond immediately to customer queries, which will be in the thousands during the holiday season 2019. An innovative and effective medium always makes customers happy, because they seek novelty every time.

In order to make the most out of this festive season, you have got to target young and old shoppers alike. Marketing your product to specific age groups will work wonders and bring in the relevant customers. It is your time to shine, now that we draw close to the end of this year. Make your brand well known and be at the ready to step up your efforts, for the holiday spirit dictates that you being joy and cheer to all your awaiting customers.