‘Tis the season for trying to connect the right gift ideas with the right shoppers at the right time. And not getting lost in the noise from the competition. The holiday season offers the best opportunity of the year to acquire new shoppers and build loyalty among existing ones. But only if you really think about how retargeting works and optimize each campaign to really make the most from each one of your ads.
Greg Archibald, EMD of Americas at Criteo, and Shobha Nikam, Senior Director of Global Brands, recently sat down to discuss some of the best hacks for the holidays:
Here’s what they covered:
1. Think like a publisher and monetize your retail site.
Native product ads on your website can help drive incremental revenue by featuring products from top brands that are already on your site.
By dedicating ad space to these products, you’ll keep shoppers within your ecommerce ecosystem and tap into incremental funds from top brands that are already selling on your site.
Not only that, you’ll be able to offer personalized ads that are dynamically retargeted depending on each shopper’s purchase path.
2. Understand the full cycle between digital and brick-and-mortar sales.
Omnichannel retailers have to integrate each channel into a broad picture of the shopper journey. By making it as easy as possible for shoppers to make a purchase with things like click & ship, click & collect, and mobile optimization, retailers can deliver experiences that will deliver more sales. Here’s what research from Criteo’s Shopper Story 2017 found:
- 90% of shoppers browse products online and purchase in a retail store
- 89% of shoppers buy a product online after seeing it in a retail store
- 88% of shoppers order goods online and pick them up in a retail store
- 54% of shoppers buy a product from within a retail store on another retailer’s site
- 49% of shoppers buy a product on their phone from within a retail store from that retailer’s website
This shows how complicated each journey can be – and why retailers should think about how to make each touchpoint as effective as possible along the path to conversion.
3. Don’t Forget about Cyber Week II.
We’ve all heard about Cyber Week, but there’s a not-so-secret Cyber Week II. It takes place during the week between Christmas and New Years. The sales lift during this period is considerable. According to our Seasonal Sales Dashboard, the US saw up to a 46% increase in online retail sales between Dec 26th (Boxing Day) and Dec 31st.
Apparel saw the biggest increase, with a sales uplift of up to 42% during the week. Health & Beauty and Sporting Goods retailers saw sales increases of up to 20-30% during the week.
To make sure you’re getting the most out of the holiday season, don’t forget about this extra week. Shoppers have gift certificates and cash from the holidays and many have time off to look into additional purchases.
So if you have extra budget after the holiday season – or want to try something a little unconventional and target shoppers after the traditional rush – Cyber Week II can be a great opportunity.
An Omnishopping Holiday Season
All of the trends we saw last year show us that there’s really no channel that shoppers favor over another. Every customer is an omnishopper, which means that omnichannel strategies have become more important than ever. With retargeting campaigns, you can anticipate where your shoppers will be and what they want to see the most… and that will make for a happy holiday season for all.
