Festive shoppers 5x as likely to click on retailers’ product recommendations

New research suggests festive online shoppers are taking longer to make purchase decisions this year, including interacting more heavily with retailers’ personalized product recommendations and content. Global data gathered by Commerce Experience Platform, Nosto, over Cyber Weekend 2023 found that eCommerce traffic was up 23 pe cent, with shoppers viewing 22 per cent more pages per visit and spending 10 per cent longer on each page. Despite this more considered shopping behaviour, sales were up 4.41 per cent year-over-year (YoY), with the average order value (AOV) rising by 4.10 per cent.

According to the data, shoppers were more than five times as likely to click on retailers’ onsite product recommendations this year and 81 per cent more likely to click on personalized content campaigns. On top of this, they were 13 per cent more likely to click through product recommendations sent in marketing emails.

“Shoppers are definitely putting more time and effort into their holiday shopping, meaning that the retailers who make it easier for them to find the right products are reaping the benefits,” said Jan Soerensen, General Manager North America, Nosto. “For example, retailers’ product discovery campaigns this Cyber Weekend included 76 per cent more product recommendations, more than 2x³ more personalized content, and 5x⁴ more online pop-ups compared to 2022”.

The vertical perspective
Nosto’s data tracked over 112 million visits to global eCommerce stores on its platform and saw YoY growth across a variety of verticals:

• Health & Beauty: traffic was up 14.76 per cent, sales up 14.52 per cent, and AOV up 11.21 per cent
• Fashion & Accessories: traffic went up 26.38 per cent, sales increased 4.56 per cent, and AOV was 4.27 per cent higher
• Sporting Goods & Hobbies: traffic was up 23.03 per cent, sales increased by 12.85 per cent and AOV went up 7.84 per cent

Mobile continues to be the dominant device for eCommerce purchases, with 74 per cent of all traffic and 62 per cent of sales during Cyber Weekend coming from people shopping on their phones. However, consumers are still using desktops for their highest-value purchases, with this channel seeing an AOV of $141.59 (USD) compared with $109.01 on mobile.

“As eCommerce sites grow in size and complexity, it is vital that retailers invest to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find the perfect gift online,” said Jan Soerensen. “The winning retailers in the 2023 holiday shopping season are focusing heavily on driving product discovery and are reaping the results as savvy shoppers choose them for their spending.”