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The festive season is nearly upon us! As a business owner, it is time to take advantage of this opportunity and encourage more customers to come and shop at your store. Knowing the upcoming holiday shopping trends and fixing the pitfalls are one way you can prepare for an incoming influx of holiday shoppers.

While we are on the topic of trends, here are some that you can leverage for a productive shopping season for your business, as spoken by the customers themselves.

1. “I hope the holiday shopping season opens early once again!”

Last year’s holiday shopping season kicked off earlier than expected, with most companies already rolling out Black Friday sale deals as early as October. Cyber Monday also extended beyond a day.

And what was the turnout? A huge spending surge across Australia. Bloomberg reported that post-lockdown holiday shopping sales rose by 7% against the expected 2%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The state of Victoria, coming out of coronavirus restrictions, didn’t let up on holiday sales spending, with a 21% gain, highest among other states.

As businesses have seen great sales outcomes from opening the shopping floodgates earlier, expect this trend to repeat this year. Ride the early sales bandwagon because some customers out there would like to get things done early to avoid a surge of customers and possible delays on shipping their ordered products, a notorious occurrence this season.

2. Can I buy online and pick-up in store’? (BOPIS)

Due to health and safety concerns, customers opted to online stores to buy their items and pick it up in store later. Even with restrictions easing, this hasn’t seen a decline. Even numbers back that up, as 3 out of 4 BOPIS shoppers are likely to make another purchase, and half of them made that additional purchase when they picked up their initially-bought item. How’s that for a great sales strategy?

In addition, it also helped improve customer experience by 70%, according to the National Retail Federation. With all these at hand, expect BOPIS to be your customers’ prime choice for shopping mode this year.

3. “We want free shipping!!”

Listen to your customers, and they will come in swarms. They want free shipping? Give it to them!

Big eCommerce giants like Amazon are already taking huge steps to entice more shoppers through trying to lower that shipping fee to zero, nada, zilch. If you won't follow suit, you’d likely be asking your customers to abandon their carts.

It might require you to hike up prices for other products or memberships but zeroing that shipping fee will pay you huge in this shopping frenzy.

4. “We want free and easy returns!”

This season, returning or exchanging orders will be commonplace, and making the process easier for your customers will definitely help.

Businesses must find ways to make returning and exchanging orders as streamlined as possible, especially in this peak season, since it also mirrors their satisfaction towards your brand.

5. “Mobile shopping!”

Mobile commerce is set to take over the eCommerce field, and it is inevitable.

By year’s end, mobile commerce, or more known as mCommerce, will compose 54% of all eCommerce sales. You’ll also be 157% more likely to convert customers if you switch to mobile app than sticking to mobile websites. And, with people not letting go of their phones, expect them to complete their shopping through it too. Putting your store at the forefront will make your store the leader in that department.

Is your eCommerce business prepared for the holiday shopping season? Check this blog here and reorganise your strategies!

In a possible eCommerce arms race, be ahead of the competition! Elephant in the Boardroom’s expertise in mobile apps and website design and development will help you be in the forefront for the holiday shopping craziness! Visit www.elephantintheboardroom.com.au and let us know how we can help!