Holiday Season 2019: The traditional meets the digital

Nov 13, 2019
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Written by Renée Sunde, President & CEO
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Inside Washington Retail

Traditions are evident throughout the holiday season. I guess that is something I personally love about the holidays. Whether it’s yummy home-cooked holiday meals, the presents beautifully wrapped under the tree or my mom’s cinnamon rolls and apple pie, it’s the traditions that give this season its charm.

Many holiday traditions begin with a purchase, and often-times many purchases include visits to the mall or shopping center to buy gifts, trips to the grocery store or online and in-app purchases.

Yep, there is no doubt that Christmas – more specifically, its traditions drive a lot of consumer spending in the last several months of the year. And so, it seems with each new holiday season, the influence of digital and omnichannel retail only grows. You might even say that the digital is increasingly helping shoppers experience the traditional.

So, the question is how will digital, omnichannel retail impact holiday shopping this year? With a continued increase in online gift-buying, retailers who successfully deliver an omnichannel consumer experience will lead the way.

According to a recent survey and report compiled by Field Agent, there are several takeaways from the holiday report that may be of note:

  • Online and digital shopping will take bigger slices of the holiday pie.
    According to the survey more than half of holiday shoppers indicate they are completely likely to purchase gifts online.
  • More than half of online gift-shoppers say they are completely or very likely to use store pickup to retrieve their gifts this holiday season.
  • 6 in 10 of the shoppers surveyed said they are completely or very likely to use a mobile app to assist in their holiday gift-shopping this year.
  • Brick-and-mortar remains essential. 95% of shoppers surveyed expect to visit at least one brick-and-mortar retailer for gifts in 2019 and three-quarters will visit more than two stores for gifts.

Clearly, the emphasis many retailers are placing on omnichannel retail is not misplaced. It’s not physical or digital; it’s physical and digital this holiday season.