Digital shopping saw a Super Saturday uptick, but the surge in online shopping peaked a week earlier as consumers looked to get ahead with festive gift buying, the latest data from Wunderkind, the leading consumer engagement platform that scales one-to-one messages for retailers and brands, revealed.
Web revenues on Super Saturday (18 December 2021), traditionally one of the busiest trading days of the entire festive season, were up slightly week-on-week, rising +2.12 per cent compared to the previous Saturday (11 December).
However, this year, the main surge in online Christmas shopping came a week earlier, Wunderkind’s data showed, with eCommerce sales peaking on Friday 10 December, when they rose +588.2 per cent week-on-week. This represented a +332.5 per cent increase on the daily average for December to date.
The early wave of online shopping, Wunderkind suggests, could be attributed to consumers getting online orders in early December to avoid any supply chain disruption or delivery delays, ensuring there was sufficient time for their order to arrive ahead of the Big Day.
Web traffic also peaked during the weekend of 11/12 December, when site visits were +13.7 per cent higher than those seen over the Super Saturday weekend (18/19 December), with traffic peaking on Sunday 12 December, up +11.62 per cent on the daily average for December so far.
Email opens also surged on Friday 10 December, up 36.86 per cent on the daily average for December, while email engagement (clicks) also saw a significant spike at around the same time, rising +48.1 per cent on the daily December average on Thursday 9 December.
Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, GM EMEA at Wunderkind, commented: “The fact that shopping is happening earlier is likely a result of people adapting to the ‘new normal’, with the pandemic and Brexit combining to create shipping delays, supply chain issues, staff shortages and uncertainty around the impacts of impending restrictions.
“Something else our data has revealed is that, as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, consumers are highly engaged via digital channels. Retailers have to be mindful of these peaks in consumer engagement—via both email and their websites—and ensure they’re taking the opportunity to target individuals with relevant, personalised and attractive offers and communications at the right time, and via the most effective channels.”
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