We all know consumers are shopping earlier every year, but are retailers keeping up? According to the latest internal data from Omnisend shared with Retail Brew, not quite.
While many Americans (56.1%) are buying gifts a lot earlier than Black Friday, Omnisend’s data shows that only 24.4% of brands kicked off their holiday marketing campaigns before November 11.
The survey, which analyzed marketing emails sent by 4,500 US-based e-commerce brands between September 1 and November 11, also tracked the precise timeline of campaigns as they were released.
By September 1, just 4.8% of brands had launched holiday promotions. That share rose to 13.1% by October 1 and 21.6% by November 1—when many shoppers had already wrapped up most of their lists, according to Omnisend.
The stretch between October 31 and November 5 marked the “busiest” period, with 19% of all new campaigns going live.
“There’s a clear disconnect between when people start buying and when brands start talking to them,” Marty Bauer, e-commerce expert at Omnisend, said in a statement. “Our data suggests that by the time many brands turn on their holiday campaigns, a big portion of shoppers have already started ticking names off their lists. The winners are the brands that show up early with clear, relevant offers, not just the ones shouting the loudest on Black Friday weekend.”
While consumers are no doubt being cautious with their spending, eyeing discounts and deals, data suggests they’re still spending more than last year.
Per ICSC Holiday Shopping Intentions Survey, for instance, retail sales are set to go up between 3.5% and 4% this season. Likewise, NRF projects holiday spending to land somewhere between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion in November and December—a marked increase from $976 billion last year.
It goes to show that retailers hoping to get out of the holiday slump will need to meet their consumers where they are, which may include sales and promotions at the right time, according to Omnisend.