Christmas shopping is not a holiday

This time of year brings a lot of big spending days; Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the whole Christmas shopping period. However, some consumers find this to be exhausting and actually spend less. Patrick Brusnahan writes

Christmas shopping can be a stressful period of time. According to research from Klarna, the average Brit spends 7.2 hours Christmas shopping, visiting seven online retailers in the process. In addition, one third of Brits are exhausted by Boxing Day.

In-store crowds are the biggest source of stress according to around a quarter of shoppers. This suggests that improved POS is much needed at retail outlets to get people in and out easily. 20% of respondents stated that finding the perfect gift was also causing an ordeal.

Luke Griffiths, UK General Manager, Klarna, commented: “This research shows that the online customer journey at Christmas is fraught and can be easily fractured by a stressful moment. Retailers must be aware of this and invest in their user experience to deliver a smooth customer journey – from the first moment a customer spots your product to when it is sitting under the Christmas tree.

“Payments are often forgotten in the festive rush towards marketing and discounting. We want to help retailers offer their customers a smooth festive season with our payment solutions, including Pay later and Slice it. Being aware of stress levels and worries about gift buying helps retailers win over customers that are unsure about a gift or struggling with finances, to spread the cost.”

Shopping fatigue is also affecting the usually prosperous Cyber Monday. According to Ingenico, with Black Friday looking more like a week-long event, rather than just a day, online sales on Cyber Monday are struggling.

Online sales peaked on Black Friday this year, where consumers spent a huge 515% more online than the average Friday in 2017. This was nearly double the expenditure on Cyber Monday.

This is a great dip for Cyber Monday as in 2016; transaction value was only 26% below Black Friday.

“With retailers competing to launch their discount campaigns first, and consumers rushing to snap up the best deals, ‘Black Friday’ has now extended into a full week-long event,” said Gabriel de Montessus, VP Retail Global Product and Marketing for Ingenico Group. “Cyber Monday was still one of the biggest e-commerce days of the year, but sales fatigue appears to have hit consumers who, this year, expended more energy and budget on earlier discount offers.”

“Black Friday fever gripped the continent once again this year,” added de Montessus. “In 2018, retailers have a clear opportunity to expand their festive campaigns across Europe, providing they have the right payments infrastructure in place. Payment preferences vary hugely across the continent. Retailers should ensure they put customers at ease by localising to reflect languages and shopping cultures.”