Thursday, November 23

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🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• Sales are already up ahead of US Thanksgiving

• Where e-commerce falls short compared to retail

• Shoppers’ top pet peeves

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 🦃 It’s beginning — sales are already up

📰 TL;DR - Black Friday comes tomorrow but the shopping frenzy is already beginning. According to this, US online retail sales totaled $63.2 billion from Nov. 1-20, a 5% increase from the same period last year. Early discounts are a big driver of those sales with brands starting sales earlier than in years past. Adobe predicts there will be a 5.4% increase in online shopping from Thanksgiving through to Cyber Monday compared to last year and Cyber Monday is predicted to be the biggest day for online sales. October sales were also up 59%.

💡 Insight - And we’re off! Welcome to the Olympics of e-commerce. It very much looks like the industry-wide strategy of starting sales early has been very effective. But I want to remind you that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Or perhaps a sprint followed by a marathon? The point is that people keep shopping after Cyber Monday, leading all the way into Christmas. You’re going to have a busy weekend, but also a busy month. Get ready!

➡️ You can read the article here...

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#3 - 🏪 Retail still dominates for product discovery

📰 TL;DR - Despite the massive rise in e-commerce, retail is still largely where shoppers discover products and convert to customers. According to this, 31.5% of shoppers immediately purchase an item they discover in-store, compared with 19.1% on retail sites and 10.4% on brand sites. Certain categories also see more conversion in-store, including grocery and household supplies. Beauty and furniture were more evenly split, although apparel and electronics skew more towards e-commerce. Altogether, e-commerce hasn’t fully replaced the power of in-store shopping.

💡 Insight - This is some not-so-positive news that I still think you should pay attention to. It shows that there is still something to be said about getting to be able to see an item in person. My two takeaways are that, first, it really makes sense why so many traditionally DTC brands have expanded into retail in the last year or two. It’s a different channel for discovery and seeing something in store is a great way to get someone in the funnel, who may go on to purchase online later. My second thought is it’s important to take advantage of tools that more closely replicate shopping in person, such as augmented reality and 3D renderings.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

📺 ADS - Some ad execs shared their favorite holiday ads.

😎 INFLUENCERS - This article looks at how AI is going to change influencer marketing.

📎 LINKEDIN - Here’s a guide to LinkedIn video ads.

📊 RETAIL - Here are some charts about Q3 retail sales in the US.

🪩 DISCO - Men’s skincare brand Disco is filing for bankruptcy. 

#5 - 😬 These are shoppers’ top e-commerce pet peeves

📰 TL;DR - This survey asked shoppers about their top frustrations when shopping online for the holidays. Here’s the top 6:

• Slow website loading times (20%)

• Excessive pop-ups (19%)

• Item unavailability (19%)

• No quick-purchase checkout options such as Apple Pay or PayPal (17%)

• Poor search results (9%) and sites not configured for mobile (tied at 9%)

• Promotion didn’t work correctly (8%)

All of these issues can jeopardize conversions, leading to cart abandonment or switching to another website. This notes that one study found that more than half of shoppers would shop elsewhere this holiday season if a brand’s website or app loads too slowly.

💡 Insight - These are good to know because the great news is that they’re all fixable. They’re all also pretty intuitive and tips that we’ve covered in this newsletter many times. It’s such a good idea to stress-test your website’s tech ahead of the holidays to check on load times and other issues. For pop-ups, don’t have one on every page — it’s annoying! Make sure your inventory counts are correct. Upgrade your search tool. Have multiple payment options. Make sure your promo codes work. You got this!

➡️ You can read the article here...