Christmas Retail
Review 2012
Maximising Christmas campaigns through
data driven insight
January 2013
Contents
Introduction
4
Online and offline retail summary5
The key dates that made Christmas 2012
7
Sales creep and the death of the Boxing Day sale
8
Top gifts of Christmas 20129
The mobile mindset10
Closing the gap between multi-channel and online-only retail
11
Unlocking the potential of Christmas 2013
14
Conclusion15
Appendix 16
3
Introduction
Christmas online gets bigger every year, with each December
managing to surpass the achievements of the previous year and
December 2012 did not fail to disappoint.
Christmas 2012 was another record-breaker for the online retail industry boasting
a 30% year-on-year increase in UK Internet visits and a 17.8% growth in online
sales according to figures from the British Retail Consortium. Although the
sterling performance of online retail masks a pretty flat performance overall
of just 0.3% growth in like-for-like sales this shows the growing prominence of
online, and the importance of executing effective digital marketing campaigns in
order to maintain growth in an increasingly challenging and competitive industry.
Online and offline retail summary
Christmas 2012 was quite simply, the biggest online retail shopping period
ever seen. The UK made 2.8 billion visits to retail websites, 30% more than in
December 2011 and spent 372 million hours shopping, 29 million more hours
than last year. Using data from Experian Hitwise and Experian Footfall we can see
the online and offline retail trends across Christmas when shoppers were at their
most prolific. The chart below depicts Footfall to the high street and big shopping
centres against visits to online retail websites over Christmas.
At Experian Marketing Services data is at the heart of everything we do.
Using data from a range of our products including Experian Hitwise, Experian
CheetahMail, Experian Footfall and Experian Alchemy Social this paper outlines
some of the key trends we saw this Christmas. By reading this whitepaper you
will discover the top days that made Christmas 2012, the impact of this year’s
sales creep on retail visits, the top products people were searching for, how
mobile is influencing conversions and the changing dynamic between multichannel and online-only retailers.
Whilst intrinsically interesting in their own right, the purpose of these insights
is to demonstrate how data can be used to give businesses the competitive
advantage they need to stay ahead of the curve. Unless specifically referenced
otherwise, all of the insight and data contained within this report has come from
the expertise provided by Experian products. We hope this opens your eyes to the
possibilities of what can be gained from understanding great data and that our
insights will help you plan for the year ahead and Christmas 2013.
Christmas summary
• UK made 113 million visits to retail websites on • Facebook was responsible for driving 4% of all visits Boxing Day (26 December 2012) the biggest to retail websites this Christmas.
online shopping day ever.
• UK spent 26 million hours on social networks on 23 • Mondays were the biggest days to shop online December making social the ideal channel to
attracting 12% more visits than any other day of the promote sales.
week.
• Sales started on Christmas Eve this year which caused • 2.8 billion visits went to online retail sites this an 86% uplift in visits to retail sites compared to
Christmas Eve 2011.
December up 30% from 2011.
• Click and Collect services grew by 40% this year a • Furbies made a big come back this Christmas and
were the 16th most popular product on Cyber Monday
saving grace for last minute shoppers.
(3 December 2012).
• Customers spent 7% longer (35 seconds) on retail • Tablets were the most popular gift underneath the websites on Sundays.
Christmas tree this year, with Apple’s iPad Mini the • 9% increase in conversion rates by sending mobile most searched for tablet.
optimised emails.
• Experian Mosaic UK ‘Liberal Opinions’ were 51% more • Shoppers spent 70% more from email campaigns likely to use their smartphone for shopping than the rest
sent in November than campaigns sent in December. of the UK.
As with last year, Footfall experienced its highest peaks of the week on Saturdays,
which also happened to be the worst performing day of the week for online
shopping. If consumers were shopping on a Saturday, they were much more
likely to do so in store than online. Mondays on the other hand were consistently
the biggest days for online shopping over Christmas which tended to be much
less significant days for high street shopping.
The implication of this is that online and offline shopping complements one
another, rather than compete directly against each other. The goal of the marketer
is to understand the peaks and troughs of each channel in order to extract the
maximum value at the critical time to increase conversions and sales.
Within the peaks and troughs across Christmas, one trend that was consistent
across both online and offline shopping was that there was incremental growth
week-on-week in the build up to the first Monday of December. This represented
the peak of pre-Christmas shopping online with Monday 3 December, also known
as Cyber Monday breaking pre-Christmas retail records. 112 million UK Internet
visits went to retail websites on Cyber Monday making it the second biggest
online shopping day in British history.
• Saturday 22 December was the biggest day of 2012 for Footfall as shoppers flocked to the high street for
last minute gifts.
• Customers were 40% more likely to open Christmas emails sent in the morning than those sent in the • Footfall increased by 52% between 26 and 27 December as shoppers hunted for bargains in the post-Christmas
evening.
sales.
• Christmas emails sent on Wednesdays had the highest unique click rate of 3.2%.
4
5
The key dates that made Christmas 2012
After Cyber Monday online traffic began to dwindle whilst Footfall traffic
continued to steadily increase until it reached its crescendo on Saturday 22
December, the last Saturday before Christmas and the single busiest shopping
day of the year for the high street. This coincided with the lowest performing day
of online shopping.
Christmas Eve was a significant day both online and offline as it represented a
chance for many shoppers to do some final last minute shopping. As Christmas
Eve fell on a Monday this year much of the working population had a half day at
the office before going home for Christmas. It was clearly too late for people to
order online and expect delivery before Christmas, however, searches for clickand-collect services increased by 40% this year with consumers securing gifts
online and picking them up in store on their way home.
23
Mega Monday or Cyber Monday? Each year there is always confusion
around the pre-Christmas shopping peak and the difference between key
retail days Mega Monday and Cyber Monday. Mega Monday is the first
Monday after Thanksgiving and is primarily a big sales day in the US.
Cyber Monday is the first Monday of December and is the biggest preChristmas shopping day of the year in the UK. In 2012 Mega Monday was
on 26 November and Cyber Monday was 3 December.
As stores were shut across the country on Christmas Day Footfall dropped to zero
but online shopping continued at a rapid pace. Boxing Day itself set a new online
record as the busiest shopping day ever witnessed and Footfall also increased
for the post-Christmas sales as shoppers went bargain-hunting both in store and
online.
3 December
The first Monday of December, otherwise known as Cyber Monday was the biggest preChristmas shopping day of the year with the UK making 112 million visits to retail websites,
32% more than Cyber Monday 2011. This was the day organised consumers ordered their
presents online, spending a total of 15 million hours shopping.
12 December
The second Wednesday of December proved to be a key day for the email channel.
Retailers relied on email more on 12 December than any other day of the winter season,
with average clickthrough rates hitting 3.2% and the average order value being £90. Over
102 million visits went to retail websites on 12 December making it the biggest Wednesday
ever witnessed in a pre-Christmas shopping period.
24 December
A combination of last minute panic buying and major retail brands bringing forward their
Christmas sales meant that online visits to the shopping industry on Christmas Eve shot up
by 86% year-on-year. Traditionally one of the worst performing days of December in terms
of retail visits, Christmas Eve 2012 was bigger than last year’s Cyber Monday as people
secured final gifts via click-and-collect services and took advantage of early discounting.
25 December
With many sales in full swing Christmas Day became a huge shopping day in its own right,
and not just a researching precursor to the Boxing Day sales. 107 million visits went to
retail websites on Christmas Day, making it the fifth biggest shopping day online of 2012.
Amazon took full advantage of the increased desire to shop on Christmas Day becoming
the most visited retail website in the UK and overtaking eBay for the first time in 2012.
26 December
UK Internet users made 113 million visits to retail websites on Boxing Day setting a new
British retail record in the process, but figures were lower than expected due to major
retailers bringing forward their winter sales. Consumers spent an estimated £400 million
online on Boxing Day across 14 million hours of shopping.
6
7
Sales creep and the death of the Boxing Day sale
One of the unexpected trends of Christmas 2012 was the prominence of
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as significant shopping days online. UK
Internet users made 84 million visits to retail websites on Christmas Eve and
107 million visits on Christmas Day up an astonishing 86% and 71% respectively
compared to the same days in December 2011. Although Christmas Eve was
expected to be much bigger in 2012 than it was in 2011 the actual visit figures far
exceeded the predicted 30% year-on-year growth.
Last year we noticed that the ‘sales creep’ was starting earlier in the year, with
consumers starting to search for sales online as early as 15 December. This
year that edged forward again with uplifts in sales searches beginning on 14
December. What it created was a Mexican standoff between consumers and
retailers to see who would blink first. Would the retailers start their discounting
early or not?
By bringing the sales forward to Christmas Eve retailers inadvertently killed
the Boxing Day sale. For the first time ever, post-Christmas sales began before
Christmas, rendering the notion of the Boxing Day sale somewhat meaningless.
In the last five years retailers have had to rebrand their sales from ‘January sales’
to ‘Boxing Day sales’ to ‘Winter sales’ as the slippery slope forced discounting to
start earlier in the year. This meant that a lot of the visits that might have taken
place on Boxing Day actually happened on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day,
leading to a muted visits figure of 113 million visits on 26 December.
Top gifts of Christmas 2012
Every Christmas can be defined by the gifts that were most sought after by eager
consumers. Although there are perennial favourites such as Lego, watches and
warm winter footwear, the changing trends which shift from year to year serve
to highlight what retailers should be focusing their efforts on in the execution of
search, email and social campaigns.
Christmas 2012 was undoubtedly the year of the tablet, accounting for five of the
top 20 most searched for products of December 2012. The most popular tablet
this year was Apple’s iPad Mini followed by the iPad 4, Kindle Fire, Samsung
Galaxy Tab 2 and iPad 2. In total 25% of all product searches this December were
for tablets, showing the voracious appetite the UK had this Christmas for the
latest technology trends. With so many tablets being bought for Christmas gifts
this year, the knock-on effect for the retail industry is that mobile shopping will
play a much bigger role in Christmas 2013 as consumers buy gifts online using
their tablets.
The surprise package of this Christmas was the onesie. Adult babygrows of all
shapes and sizes collectively known as ‘onesies’ grew in popularity throughout
2012 witnessing a 6-fold increase in searches since December 2011 to become
the most popular gift of Christmas 2012. Interestingly, there was twice as much
demand for onesies for men than there was for women. The search data revealed
that 12% of onesie searches included the word ‘men’ or ‘mens’ whereas only 5%
included the word ‘womens’ or ‘ladies’.
As a result Boxing Day 2012 was 17% bigger in 2012 than it was in 2011, not
nearly as significant as the overall 30% growth for December as a whole.
However, bringing the sales forward was by no means a bad thing for retailers.
For a start it dominated online behaviour from 24-26 December. On Christmas
Eve 1 in every 125 searches conducted in the UK included the word ‘sale’ or
‘sales’. By Boxing Day that was up to 1 in every 65 searches, the top sales search
terms being ‘next sale’, ‘debenhams sale’, ‘marks and spencer sale’ and ‘john
lewis sale’. Over 300 million visits went to retail websites across Christmas Eve,
Christmas Day and Boxing Day, 50% more than the same three days in 2011. So
although early discounting stole some of the thunder from Boxing Day, overall
this helped sales figures immensely.
With discounting starting earlier online this raises the question of whether online
sales will eventually kill Boxing Day high street sales. The data suggests that
this is not the case. Footfall data shows that Boxing Day was 0.64% higher than
last year and no matter when online sales start, there will always be a place for
sales shopping on the high street. Sales shopping is a very tangible experience,
and one that is difficult to replicate online. Consumers like the buzz of the crowd,
thumbing through the racks to find the perfect bargain outfit, or for large ticket
items to size up what a 60” flat screen TV actually looks like. High street sales
are not going to disappear but it is becoming more important for retailers to
distinguish themselves from the competition or risk losing out at the final sale.
8
Lego, which for the last two years has been the most popular gift over Christmas,
had to settle for second place this year. Games consoles and accessories
including games and controllers were also noticeably less popular this year
than in previous Christmases with the PlayStation 3 just scraping into the top
20 and Xbox Accessories ranked at 15 in the list. The seventh generation of
games consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii) is now seven years old and with interest
waning, the industry is crying out for a new injection of life. With both the
Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 scheduled for release in 2013 this will undoubtedly
reinvigorate the video games market and next year’s list should have a very
different look and feel to it as the games consoles compete directly with the
tablets for Christmas supremacy.
9
The mobile mindset
2012 was another extraordinary year for mobile, with smartphone penetration
in the UK passing the 50% mark, over half the population can now access
the Internet on the move with their phone. The rise of the tablet means that
consumers are also using mobile devices at home in order to do their shopping.
This Christmas visits to mobile retail websites through Wi-Fi increased by 135%
compared to last year, which doesn’t take into account the increased visits being
made through 3G when users were shopping on the go.
The rapid growth of mobile Internet has created new challenges and
opportunities for marketers. For mobile computing, context is everything. Getting
into the mobile mindset takes into account the various influences and factors at
play when communicating and trying to incite action from people via a mobile
device. Freed from the relative homogeneity of the deskbound PC, mobile
interactions are deeply situated. Geo-targeting for example opens up a whole
new dimension of personalisation in your marketing communications, sending
special offers to customers and then directing them to your nearest store gives
the customer a clear incentive to come in store and purchase your products.
Closing the gap between multi-channel and
online-only retail
There is no doubt that the retail landscape is growing more competitive. For the
last three years multi-channel retailers – those retailers with both an online and
high street presence – have received more online traffic than online-only retailers
such as Amazon, eBay and ASOS. Particularly in the post-Christmas sales, multichannel retailers excel because they can provide both the convenient online
experience and the tangible touching/feeling in store experience that bargainhunters crave.
However, the gap between multi-channel and online-only retailers is narrowing.
In December 2010 multi-channel retailers received 50% more traffic than onlineonly; by December 2011 the difference between them was 30% and in December
2012 it had narrowed to 22%.
The lines are blurring between mobile and traditional internet activity. As
smartphones and tablets become more comprehensive and more connected
and the speeds with which they can connect to the internet increase with 4G it is
becoming more important to ensure that your communications are displayed as
you intended them to be. Utilising responsive design to give alternate versions
of content and layout to recipients based on the device they are using can boost
conversion rates by up to 9%.
It is important to note that responsive design is not all about making the visuals
work across devices and designing for a 25 pixel fingertip, it is also about
considering the content you would like a recipient to see depending on the device
they are using. For example, if they are viewing the email on a mobile phone
maybe they would prefer a ‘click to call’ call to action rather than being directed
to a website.
Crucially, mobile is only going to get bigger. The impact of tablets being the
most popular gift this Christmas means there will be millions more tablets active
next Christmas than there were this Christmas, which in turns means a lot more
people will be using their mobile devices for shopping and browsing. There is
a clear benefit to be gained from optimising email and web content for mobile
– higher conversions and more revenue. Whereas previously having mobile
optimised content would give retailers a competitive edge, now it is an imperative
for the next evolution of digital marketing. Understanding mobile interactions
online, and how to communicate effectively with your customers via their mobile
devices has never been more important.
What this means is that retailers will have to work harder to ensure they secure
the custom from potential buyers. Consumers are growing ever more fickle, and
will not hesitate to try an item in store and then hunt around online to find the
cheapest deal available. From an online perspective browsing between websites
has increased significantly this Christmas. Clickstream data from Experian
Hitwise shows that 28% of all visits to retail websites came from another retail
site, up from 24% in December 2011. The average visit time spent on a retail site
has also declined from 9 minutes last year to 7.5 minutes this year.
In short, consumers are comparing more and if they can’t find what they are
looking for on your website they will jump to the next website. This could
ultimately lead to more basket abandonments and higher bounce rates to your
website if customers do not feel they are getting the best service and value for
their money.
10
11
This is especially true later in December when shopping behaviour is more
time pressured and frantic. With customers’ expectations constantly rising, the
imperative for retailers has become to understand their customers wants, needs
and desires in order to provide a seamless retail experience across all marketing
channels - omni-channel marketing.
Daytime shoppers vs Night time shoppers seasonality
In order to understand customers consistently across all marketing channels
their needs to be a common currency which unites and links disparate data sets.
Experian’s custom segmentation and demographics tool Experian Mosaic UK
fulfils this role, providing a rich granularity which allows you to understand your
customers across all marketing channels. Mosaic benchmarks the UK population
against 500 different data variables from the newspapers a group of people read,
to the number of holidays they take a year or the kind of cars they like to drive.
To bring this to life, we have grouped together a sample of Mosaic types united
by their propensity to shop during the daytime. Through the rich tapestry of data
collated in Mosaic we can see that daytime shoppers are people who are online
during the day using the internet for casual shopping and managing family
finances. This includes mums with pre-school and primary school age children or
older people with fewer local shopping options.
From the graph above you can see that daytime shoppers are less active during
Christmas than at other times of the year, but that there is a distinct spike in
shopping activity during the post-Christmas sales as they hunt for a Boxing Day
bargain. Night time shoppers on the other hand, are much more reliant on the
Internet for their Christmas gifts and start to get more active online in the preChristmas during November and early December. Night time shoppers will be the
consumers who take advantage of Cyber Monday whereas daytime shoppers are
more active later in the Christmas season.
Drilling down specifically into this groups Christmas shopping habits, what
quickly becomes clear is that daytime shoppers favour online department stores
as they are convenient one-stop shops. Daytime shoppers don’t have the time for
long periods of browsing and so department stores such as John Lewis, Marks
& Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraser are the online retail websites this
group is more likely to shop at. In fact, daytime shoppers were 32% more likely
than the average consumer to visit John Lewis online in December.
What this shows, is how different groups of people can exhibit very diverse
behaviours online. By using Mosaic as the common currency to understand
customer behaviour this data can be used to reveal online and offline preferences
not just in shopping habits but in virtually every facet of daily life. By truly
understanding who your customers are, you can start to tailor the messages you
send to them across whatever marketing channel you are using, providing your
customers with that seamless consistent experience that they demand.
This data can also be used to highlight another group of night time shoppers,
people who typically have busy working lives in the UK’s biggest cities and are
confined to shopping outside of working hours. These people use the Internet as
their main outlet for shopping and are experienced savvy online consumers, with
little time to shop on the high street.
By comparing the daytime shoppers with night time shoppers, we can see how
the seasonality of these two groups compares against the backdrop of the overall
retail market online.
By using Mosaic as the common currency to understand
customer behaviour this data can be used to reveal
online and offline preferences not just in shopping
habits but in virtually every facet of daily life.
Through the rich tapestry of data collated in Mosaic we can see
that daytime shoppers are people who are online during the day
using the internet for casual shopping and managing family
finances.
12
13
Unlocking the potential of Christmas 2013
This paper features a range of insights using Experian Marketing Services
solutions in search, mobile optimisation, email responsive design, custom
research and segmentation. To find out more about any of the Experian products
and how these can help your business, please contact us using the details below.
Mobile
Email
early on
Wednesdays
Catch the
right days
23
Social
Visits to mobile retail websites grew by 135% this Christmas compared to
last year further emphasising the phenomenal growth of mobile Internet
on smartphones and tablets. As tablets were the most searched for gift this
Christmas with 25% of all product searches being for a tablet there will be
millions more iPads, Kindle Fires, Surfaces and other tablets that will be
browsing for gifts in 2013 that didn’t exist in 2012. Rendering website and email
content smartly for mobiles is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.
Wednesdays emerged as the day when customers were most likely to
clickthrough to a website with an average clickthrough rate of 3.20%. Customers
are also 40% more likely to open an email sent in the morning than one sent in
the evening, so engaging early really pays dividends.
Cyber Monday will fall on 2 December in 2013 so retailers will need to prepare
even earlier than this year in November not to be caught off guard. Having said
that, the reason Cyber Monday has historically been so popular is that customers
bought early online in anticipation of a two week delivery schedule. Online
deliveries have become so reliable that Cyber Monday may be less important as a
shopping day and could even be eclipsed by 9 or 16 December.
Conclusion
Christmas 2012 has been exceptional for online retail with more visits made and
more hours spent shopping online than ever before. 2013 will carry its own set
of challenges as retailers get to grips with a rapidly expanding mobile market
and competition between brands becomes ever fiercer in the fight for online
supremacy.
The economic climate is still tough for much of the UK and yet despite the
austerity felt across large swathes of the population, Christmas spend continues
to grow each year. In these times there a lot of hard choices and sacrifices to
be made but on the evidence of this data one thing people are not prepared to
compromise on is Christmas. Indeed it may well be because people have been
more cautious throughout the rest of the year that they are still able to enjoy a
few luxuries at Christmas.
Regardless of how the economy fares throughout 2013, Christmas will once again
be bigger than it was this year. December 2013 will set new records for retail
visits, with 3.3 billion visits predicted to go to shopping websites. More visits
will mean more opportunities for retailers to capitalise on in the online space,
the ones that will be most successful are those that can truly understand the
needs of their customers and provide a consistent shopping experience across all
marketing channels. At the heart of this understanding will be great data, which
will enable you to make smarter, more informed marketing decisions.
Regardless of how the economy fares throughout 2013, Christmas
will once again be bigger than it was this year. December 2013 will
set new records for retail visits, with 3.3 billion visits predicted to
go to shopping websites.
Social media remains one of the best channels to promote winter sales, with
the biggest days coming on 23 December. Facebook alone receives over a billion
visits a month. The biggest day for social media sending traffic to retail websites
this year was 23 December. This makes social the ideal channel to promote postChristmas sales for Boxing Day and beyond as consumers are engaged on social
sites and want to click through on offers made by retailers.
Understanding
Anticipating the needs of your customers has never been more important.
customers
Consumers are growing more demanding and therefore retailers need to
know who they should be targeting with the right messages at the right time.
Demographic segmentation will allow you to reduce your cost per acquisition,
and eliminate wasted messaging through online advertising, social and email.
14
15
Appendix
This paper features a range of insights using Experian Marketing Services
solutions in search, mobile optimisation, email responsive design, custom
research and segmentation. To find out more about any of the Experian products
and how these can help your business, please contact us using the details below.
T +44 20 3042 4794
[email protected]
www.hitwise.com/uk
We regularly produce insights from Experian Marketing Services data. If you want
to stay up-to-date with the latest online trends across a variety of sectors follow
the links below:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Subscribe to our reports at: www.hitwise.com/uk/resources/reports
Read our blogs at: www.experian.com/blogs/hitwise-uk
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hitwise_uk
Download our white papers at: www.hitwise.com/uk/resources/reports
View upcoming webinars at: www.hitwise.com/uk/resources/webinars
Explore our webinar archive at www.hitwise.com/uk/resources/webinars/
webinar-archive
If you would like us to produce a bespoke report tailored to your business or
industry please vist www.hitwise.com/uk/research
About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services delivers best-in-breed customer data and insight,
digital marketing technologies and data management services into multiple
regions around the globe. By helping marketers more effectively target and
engage their best customers with meaningful communications across both
traditional and digital media, Experian Marketing Services enables organisations
to encourage brand advocacy while creating measurable return on marketing
investment.
For more information, visit www.experian.co.uk/marketingservices
About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data
and analytical tools to clients in more than 80 countries. The company helps
businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and
automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit
report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent
of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2011 was US$4.2
billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 41 countries and has
its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in
Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.
16
80 Victoria Street
Cardinal Place
London
SW1E 5JL
www.experian.co.uk
© Experian Limited 2013.
The word “EXPERIAN” and
the graphical device are trade
marks of Experian and/or its
associated companies and
may be registered in the EU,
USA and other countries. The
graphical device is a registered
Community design in the EU.
All rights reserved.