Peak season is right around the corner, and just like the last few years, this one is filled with uncertainty and consumer behavioral changes. To help businesses prepare, Metapack partnered with Retail Economics to conduct retail research examining data from 8,000 global consumers to reveal for insight into how they planned to shop this upcoming peak season and how the cost of living crisis will impact their spending.
How will customer behavior change this ecommerce peak season?
According to our 2022 Holiday Shopping Trends Report, customers are wary about the future and rightly so. In August 2022, the UK’s inflation rate rose to a staggering 10.1% – the highest since the early 1980s. According to the research, the UK is the most impacted market surveyed – dire news for retailers and consumers.
The responses to our consumer survey indicate most households (over 70%) plan to cut back on some, if not all, of their spending. Of those surveyed only 15% say they aren’t worried about the cost-of-living crisis – at least for now.
In terms of peak season and incoming impacts on ecommerce retailers, here’s what we’ve learned from shoppers:
- Over 25% of UK consumers plan to do all their peak season shopping online
- Nearly 35% plan to do most of their shopping online and some in store
- Less than 20% plan to do all their shopping for Black Friday and Christmas in store
How will inflation impact demand across categories?
It’s no secret that prices are rising across the board, for everything from raw materials to finished products, such as apparel, health and beauty and toys. We asked 6,000 shoppers to let us know what products they would cut back spending on and the results were surprising.
According to those surveyed, 30% said they would spend less on electrical products while over 25% said they’d also cut back on homewares, health and beauty and apparel. It seems most product categories will see a drop off in demand as consumers tighten their belts.
What products will still perform relatively well this peak season?
According to our survey, DIY continues to be strong, as it was during the pandemic and toys look to take less of a demand hit going into the Christmas season with less than 25% of survey respondents saying they’d cut spending in these categories.
The critical case for carrier contingency
The UK’s economic future is anything but clear but preparing for any eventualities will help ecommerce retailers deal with any potential challenges. When pressure is combined with uncertainty, contingency planning becomes imperative.
Carrier diversity usually enables retailers to provide an equally diverse suite of delivery options. This will help retailers convert, especially as we get further into peak season and time pressure mounts. If a customer leaves their holiday shopping to the last minute, tactics like ‘ship from the store’ can help them get their order faster, while delivery options like ‘click and collect’ or PUDO collection can bring delivery timeframes forward.
Download Metapack’s Holiday Shopping Trends Report for an in-depth analysis of consumer behaviors and ecommerce trends for the 2022 peak season.
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