Holiday shopping is just around the corner and the data shows that consumers will be spending and shopping even earlier this year! Here’s what brands and advertisers need to know when it comes to their holiday advertising and digital marketing campaigns for 2022.

1. More Spending & Growth Predicted this Holiday Season

Call it post-pandemic energy, excitement, or relief – whatever it is, consumers spent big last year and that trend is predicted to continue. Brands can take advantage of this trend and market their products properly in order to increase their sales. In such scenarios, direct marketing can prove to be beneficial. This is why leaflet distribution services are still important as companies tend to take their help in distributing marketing information such as offers and discounts through leaflets or direct mail. For instance, a travel agency might want to distribute promotional offers to people through leaflets that might also have a coupon code for a discount. Honestly, if the weather is fine and the diseases do not spread, then there are higher chances of people taking vacations. For instance, this year, the weather seems to be in favor of people taking a break from their mundane schedules, and so are viruses and bacteria. Hence, individuals would look forward to visiting Leavenworth vacation homes by Meredith Lodging (and the like) to spend quality time with their loved ones. As a result, more and more people will shop in large quantities. They would of course need travel gear while being on the move, wouldn’t they?

That said, total retail spending grew 16.1% in 2021 – the fastest growth rate in more than 20 years, according to eMarketer; Deloitte reported a similar statistic citing that 2021 total holiday retail sales increased 8.5%, the largest annual increase in 17 years. eMarketer predicts consumer holiday spending will grow 3.3% in 2022 to $1.262 trillion.

Retail and Holiday Spending & Prediction Data:

• US retail sales grew by 16.1% to $1.221 trillion in the 2021 holiday season, the fastest growth rate in more than 20 years (eMarketer, February 2022)
• Total holiday retail sales in 2021 increased 8.5%, the largest annual increase in 17 years (Deloitte, 2022)
• eMarketer predicts 2022 holiday retail sales to increase 3.3% to $1.262 trillion (eMarketer, February 2022).
• Apparel and accessories ecommerce sales surged 22.5% to $45.35 billion to make it the No. 1 category in terms of both growth and dollar figure (eMarketer, February 2022)

Advertisers: Holiday spend is going to be big. Now is the time to scale.

Budget higher spend and scale across the web, ad formats (Responsive Native, High Impact, Banner Display, and Video) and devices (desktop, tablet and mobile) to reach more interested consumers. Bidtellect’s platform is integrated with 25+ of the industry’s leading SSPs and exchanges, giving buyers access to 98%+ of the internet-connected US, and 100s of thousands of publishers and global supply. Better yet, all inventory available through Bidtellect’s platform can be filtered towards quality to ensure viewability, brand safety, supply path optimization, and to combat fraud.

2. eCommerce Continues to Dominate Holiday Shopping & Sales

Great news digital advertisers: ecommerce shopping growth has been holding steady post-pandemic. Nearly all shoppers will buy something online this holiday season – Google reported that only 4% of U.S. holiday shoppers did not use digital channels for their shopping in 2021, and eMarketer predicts nearly 16% growth in ecommerce sales this year, compared to 0.9% growth in brick and mortar sales. Additionally, e-commerce companies prefer to take the help of post-purchase customer experience platforms like Wismo, which can help them increase their rate of sales. These platforms tend to bridge the gap of communication between the seller and customers about their order, its status, and the ETA of delivery. Personalized messages to the customer regarding their order can make them feel special and motivate them to to come back again to the e-commerce website for their shopping needs.

Following the pandemic, businesses seem to be allocating more money to advertising and promoting their various categories of products due to the phenomenal growth of eCommerce. Therefore, they usually work with their financial advisers to formulate effective holiday plans, use software (like the ones provided by Finlyte) to optimize their profits, and devise interactive promotional campaigns focusing on their best-selling products in order to maximize sales during the holiday season.

We recommend shifting focus to Cyber Monday, which was the heaviest online spending day in 2021 (no surprise) and is predicted to be the No. 1 spending day of the season this year, too, rising 12.0% to $12.22 billion according to eMarketer. That said, Black Friday will be the second biggest, rising 9.8% to $9.91 billion.

eCommerce Holiday Spending Data:

• Holiday eCommerce sales will climb 15.5% to $235.86 billion in 2022 (eMarketer)
• Only 4% of U.S. holiday shoppers did not use digital channels for their shopping in 2021 (Think With Google)
• 2021 ecommerce sales increased 11% compared with 2020 and 64.1% compared with 2019 (Deloitte)
• Cyber Monday will be the No. 1 spending day of the season -rising 12.0% to $12.22 billion (eMarketer)
• Black Friday will be the second biggest online spending day, rising 9.8% to $9.91 billion (eMarketer)
• Thanksgiving will again grow the fastest at 14.1% to reach $5.90 billion (eMarketer)

Advertisers: Use context to reach more relevant audiences and industry decision-makers where they are consuming holiday content.

Contextual targeting seamlessly integrates your ads into relevant content users are already consuming – like holiday gift inspiration, holiday deals to take advantage of, or holiday shopping sites – and provides higher engagement and greater cost efficiencies, especially in combination with Bidtellect’s context-driven optimization engine.

Utilize Bidtellect’s proprietary audiences, which use natural language processing technology and the context of the page to build custom audiences that show an explicit interest in the category of your choosing.

3. Holiday Shoppers Will Start Early Thanks to Loyalty Programs & Stock Concerns

In 2021, holiday shoppers started shopping sooner – and this was thanks to brand loyalty programs combined with fears of missing out on a key wish list item. Not only that, 50% wished they had started shopping earlier, according to Google. Loyalty programs trigger earlier shopping thanks to exclusive discounts and gift inspiration – Deloitte reported that as many as 81% shopped specific brands because they were a member and 61% joined a program just for a discount.

Loyalty Program Holiday Data:

• 81% of consumers shopped specific brands during the 2021 holiday season because they were a member (Deloitte)
• 61% of consumers joined a loyalty program to receive discounts during the 2021 holiday season (Deloitte)

Early Shopping Holiday Data:

• As of June 2021, 31% of U.S. shoppers had already started their holiday shopping and 37% of shoppers who shopped last holiday season wished they had started earlier (Think With Google, March 2022)
• In June 2021, stock issues were top of mind for holiday shoppers. Over 50% of U.S. shoppers surveyed saying they would start holiday shopping earlier to avoid an item being out of stock (Think With Google, March 2022)

Advertisers: Call out loyalty programs and discounts in your creative assets

Holiday shoppers are eager to maximize their loyalty program membership and join if it offers exclusive discounts. Bidtellect’s in-house creative agency, [b]+studio, consistently sees the highest engagement with creative assets that offer a discount or loyalty program in the headline. Creative expertise combined with optimization technology will ensure maximum engagement to best-performing creative assets in real time.

We hope these holiday 2022 advertising trend predictions and campaign tips set you up for success.

Want to Learn More?

Reach out to learn how we can implement a cookieless, context-driven strategy for your brand today.