Surviving Holiday 2016

It’s ok to get your Grinch on.

Let’s face it, the holidays are great, but you won’t be full of cheer 24/7 – especially if you’re the one entertaining your extended family. But that’s ok! Because our gift to you has come early this year, and we can’t wait to share it! Our gift? Survival.

Introducing How to Survive the Holidays, created by PMG out of mostly love – and a little snark – for the holiday season.

This online holiday survival guide brings you through the industry outlook, planning and client-facing scenarios that you’re bound to run into at some point over these next few months. Whether it’s at home with snobby in-laws, or at work lighting the mid-night oil, we’re with you every step of the way to offer solutions and survival tips to get you through it – Even a cheery video with 1st hand experiences and encouragement!

Holiday retail eCommerce sales will grow 17% this year, with digital sales surpassing 10% of total retail for the first time, per eMarketer. “Amazon continues to be powerful driver of ecommerce,” said eMarketer retail analyst Yory Wurmser. “It should be even higher this year, as Amazon’s revenue growth continues to outpace ecommerce growth as a whole.”

This holiday season—which eMarketer defines as November and December—total retail sales will increase 3.3% over the same period last year to $884.50 billion. Holiday retail ecommerce sales will jump to $94.71 billion, representing 10.7% of total holiday retail sales—the largest portion ever.

Therefore, there will be:

More to Win – In 2015, time spent online shopping surpassed shopping in stores. Additionally, 73% of sales were influenced by digital [Google]

Harder Fight for the Dollars – The majority of time spent with ALL retailers last Holiday was spent with Amazon at 54%. 44% of shoppers started their shopping with Amazon. Amazon added 3 million more Prime subscribers the week before Christmas alone (it is estimated there are 47 million total Prime members) [CNET]

Timing is Everything – People get excited by BFCM weekend, and stay interested well into December. One month before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the time to first purchase, an Entreprenuer study found, averaged 23 days. However, this number dropped as we moved closer to the sales weekend, as people got trigger-happy with purchasing – One week before the holiday weekend, the time to first purchase averaged 13 days, which was 56% shorter than this period for the previous month [entrepreneur]

Consumers Want to Stay Home – Black Friday eComm sales were up 14% in 2015, with foot traffic down 10%. Last minute shopper rely on faster shipping – 12/22 and 12/23 had double digit growth, per Google. 46% of shoppers say free shipping/shipping promotions are important deciding factors on where they shop.

Prep, Prep, PREP!

FREAK OUT!

Map it Out :: Anticipate Client Needs and have forecasting plans ready – yes, on the DAILY level! Also have those incremental budget ideas ready and on-hand at a moment’s notice.

Process Reminders :: Have you paperwork in place and have a client communication strategy ready.

The BFCM Craze

Check Ins :: Have these daily, if not hourly with your team and client. Pull you daily trackers and see if you are hitting your daily budget caps? Verify your scheduled updates – paid search ad copy, display creatives, bid changes, etc.

House Keeping Items :: Monitor emails. Take screenshots. Always communicate the good, the bad and the challenging.

Keep Calm, It’s Not Over Yet…..Not Until 12/25!

Reporting, Reporting, REPORTING :: Reforecast based on client demand.

Re-Calibrate :: Anticipate last minute campaigns. Refresh Creative. Prepare for shipping cut-offs. Devise liquidation strategies.

What’s PMG’s Take?

It’s Time to Celebrate!

Enjoy the awesome holiday parties and time with family!

Loosen your belt a notch or two with all of the sugar and fabulous food!

Reflect on your clients’ successes.

Draft those 2017 resolutions.

Begin prepping for those QBRs.

Remember that you aren’t saving lives!