As the end of 2023 approaches, consumers are starting their festive shopping earlier and earlier, with planning stretching over several months from September onwards. This anticipation is not escaping brands, who are starting their digital campaigns earlier and earlier. By 2024, a significant increase in online sales is predicted, with one in five sales taking place on the web.

Data from 2023 shows that consumers are oscillating between sustainable products and FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) when it comes to their festive purchases. What’s more, second-hand and social commerce are also on the rise, reflecting a change in consumer habits.

To ensure your success during this intense sales period, your marketing strategies need to be fine-tuned to maximise the impact of Black Friday and the festive season. In this article, we’ll explore the marketing trends you can adopt to boost the growth of your online shop, preparing you to take full advantage of this festive season.

Understanding consumer behaviour over the festive period

During the festive season, consumer buying behaviour undergoes significant changes. These changes in trends can influence sales prospects, signalling potential variations in demand and consumer habits.

In 2023, consumers are watching their spending. This may be due to a number of factors, such as inflation, which is putting pressure on both consumers and retailers. Other factors, such as global economic and socio-political developments, are also having an impact on consumer behaviour.

However, despite these changes, significant growth opportunities remain for brands. Companies can adapt and respond to new consumer expectations by employing influencer and content marketing strategies.

Here are some key facts:

• Consumers are considering making their purchases earlier to avoid delivery problems.
• What’s more, 77% of them plan to pay in instalments in shop.
• They are also more inclined to buy cheaper products and spend less in certain sectors, such as beauty products.
• Despite a preference for online shopping, 38% of consumers plan to complete their purchases in-store.
• Sustainability remains a key issue, with consumers looking for environmentally-friendly products without having to pay extra.

These consumer trends need to be factored into your strategy so that you can best meet consumer expectations during this crucial period.

Anticipating webmarketing trends for a successful end to 2023

As you can see, the current context is constantly changing, so you need to be able to anticipate webmarketing trends to ensure a successful end to the year.

• Capitalise on the value of your products: As mentioned above, the year 2023 is marked by heightened economic awareness among consumers. They are looking for good value opportunities and are on the lookout for promotions and offers. So it’s vital to think about your pricing strategy in order to meet demand. This year, promotion is essential to encourage new and existing customers to buy and convert on your e-commerce site. Delivery costs also need to be taken into account.
• Personalise your content and offers: Where possible, include dynamic elements in your messages to make them more specific to each user. You can recommend specific products or services on your online shop and in your automated e-mailing strategy, display dynamic content, or create personalisation fields on your website.
• Retain your customers: reactivating your existing customer base will be crucial if you are to reach a major peak during the festive season. In fact, it’s easier and cheaper to reactivate a customer than to convert a cold audience. By attracting ‘dormant’ customers back to your brand through strong promotions, loyalty programmes and personalised emails, you’ll be helping to create repeat buyers.
• Customer experience: In 2023, the focus will be on the customer experience. Brands need to focus on service quality and engagement to stand out from the crowd. Your customer service therefore needs to be thought through both upstream and downstream of the purchase. Thanks to the rise of AI, you can now use chatbots with powerful conversational AI to guide your customers and prospects in the best possible way, based on their unique needs.  Think about your various marketing actions in a cross-channel way, and extend the experience throughout the buying journey, right up to the thank-you email and after-sales service.
• Transparency and sustainability: Consumers increasingly value transparency and sustainability. Companies that adopt these values can benefit from increased visibility and credibility. Your commitments must be reflected across your multiple platforms. A solid content calendar, exploiting the full richness of your brand, will help customers to move confidently towards your online business.
• Conversational marketing: Direct dialogue with customers via social networks and other communication platforms is a key trend. This enables brands to better understand their customers and adapt their offerings accordingly. So don’t skimp on your brand’s community management, which has a considerable impact on your customer relations. As mentioned above, chatbots are also a way of keeping in touch with your customers.
• Influencers: As throughout 2023, influencers will continue to play a key role in driving purchases. Brands should therefore consider partnerships with influencers that are relevant to their audience. In 2023, authenticity is the name of the game. So it’s important to create meaningful, long-term collaborations with content creators, and to showcase them across all your channels.

By taking these trends into account, you can design effective webmarketing strategies to maximise your sales over the festive period.

The challenges facing e-commerce in the run-up to the festive season

With the rapid growth of e-commerce, supply is becoming a major issue. Effective stock management is essential to meet demand, particularly over the festive period. There are a number of challenges, including

• Anticipating demand: Accurately forecasting buying trends is crucial to avoiding stock-outs or overstocking. To do this, we recommend that you carry out an audit of your marketing activities during the previous year’s festive season. This retrospective audit will help you to understand the behaviour of the users you are going to reactivate this year. Don’t hesitate to consult the strategies developed by your competitors. Finally, it is highly recommended that you integrate AI into your processes so that you can anticipate demand and fluctuations in demand based on seasonality and your sales history.
• Returns management: With the increase in online purchases, the volume of goods returned is also growing. This means additional costs and logistical complexity, not to mention a growing environmental impact.
• Cost optimisation: Storage, transport and handling costs can weigh heavily on profitability. Today, it is possible to manage and predict demand by implementing AI. Coupled with your e-commerce, AI will enable you to anticipate demand and manage your stocks more fluidly.
• Another major challenge is to take account of supply chain disruptions caused by external factors, as was the case during the Covid-19 crisis. These disruptions can affect product availability, leading to delivery delays and customer frustration. In such cases, tech solutions can help you to facilitate communication between the various players in your supply chain. An internal application to optimise the tracking of your products using blockchain technology, for example, could be a very interesting option to implement.

Optimising your online sales channel

Dynamic content and personalised recommendations

To maximise the effectiveness of your online sales channel, don’t underestimate the importance of activating your consumers. Exploit the data you have on your contacts to present them with offers that perfectly match their needs. Today’s consumers, by agreeing to share their customer data, expect greater personalisation of your products and offers. By offering content that is relevant to each user, you can increase your conversion rate.

In the case of active customers, personalised recommendations will increase the relevance of your message. Based on user data, use rules that give priority to a category, size, material, product, or any other criteria relevant to your business.

Personalisation doesn’t stop at recommending products based on your prospects’ browsing habits. It also comes into play in your product descriptions. The way your product is advertised and the tone of voice you use are all important, depending on the segment you are targeting. If prospects find products that correspond to their needs and the language used is adapted accordingly, they will feel all the more involved.

Dynamic content can also be deployed as part of your emailing strategy. By using a powerful CRM linked to your eshop (such as Hubspot, for example), you can build a specific purchase path for each customer, thereby strengthening your relationship with the consumer.

Product categories

If you want to convert new prospects, we advise you to highlight your entry-level products, your best sellers, new products, the latest markdowns or the star products of your existing customers.

Your recommendation strategy should be more focused on recurrence, to take account of seasonality and changes in purchasing habits. Users will take advantage of offers for themselves, but also to give gifts to others. Don’t hesitate to explore recommendations based on buying trends over the last 10 days to emphasise the urgency.

Have you considered creating a gift guide that offers a wider variety with an emphasis on buying for others, based on users’ past behaviour? This guide could be very interesting to develop and distribute across all your channels.

The use of social networks in holiday marketing

This year has reinforced the crucial importance of social networks for your eshop’s holiday marketing. Their ability to target specific audiences and generate considerable engagement makes social networks an essential asset for conversion. In addition to classic platforms such as the Meta group, networks such as TikTok and Pinterest offer unique opportunities to stand out from the crowd early on and take centre stage.

Some information to remember:

• Pinterest, for example, recorded a conversion rate 4 times higher for users who used advertising during the various festive periods, compared with those who limited themselves to Christmas.
• Live Shopping, a Social Commerce feature, is a strong trend for brands looking to boost their revenues. This trend can also be coupled with the interest that consumers have in content creators. Influencer marketing is a relevant lever to use for the festive season.
• Other social networks such as TikTok should also be considered for advertising campaigns, as consumers may be more receptive to them.

It is therefore essential to diversify marketing campaigns across different platforms to maximise the reach and effectiveness of marketing efforts during the festive season. But don’t forget to continue the experience all the way through to your website and online shop to ensure a complete customer experience.

Things to remember

In conclusion, as we approach the end of 2023, it is essential for your company to anticipate market trends and adjust your strategies accordingly. Consumers, who are increasingly careful with their spending, are looking for economical offers and are sensitive to the transparency and durability of products. Brands need to capitalise on these concerns by personalising their offerings and promoting products tailored to the specific needs of each customer segment.

Anticipating webmarketing trends is crucial, with a particular focus on product value, personalising content and offers, building customer loyalty, improving the customer experience, and making judicious use of conversational marketing and influencers. In addition, effective supply management is a major challenge, requiring accurate anticipation of demand, optimised returns management and intelligent use of technology, including artificial intelligence.

Social networks play a central role in holiday marketing, offering opportunities for precise targeting and increased engagement. The personalisation of offers on e-commerce platforms is essential, involving the use of dynamic content, personalised recommendations and particular attention to the product categories highlighted. By taking advantage of these trends and adapting your strategies accordingly, you can maximise your sales during the crucial festive season.