Marketing Insight: Holiday Season Trends

Holiday Shopping Season 2021: Trend Update

Early-Bird Shopping Booms

The looming threat of shipping delays and stocking issues experienced last year caused many holiday shoppers to start earlier than expected. As of November 1st, an Oracle survey reported that 52% of consumers had already begun holiday shopping or had plans to start earlier than usual. This trend is continued from last year’s holiday shopping season, where the most significant day for holiday shopping was October 13th, 2020 (Prime Day), behind Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The numbers for the current shopping season (Q4) ending in December are expected to be in line with this current trend due to the steady growth in the number of shoppers who started shopping before Thanksgiving.

The Birth of Cyber Month

With the average customer starting their shopping early this season, businesses are getting a head start on their holiday sales, causing the birth of Cyber Month. According to oracle.com, 72% of shoppers had plans to have their orders delivered going into this season, and only 36% factored fast delivery into their purchasing decision. Their solution is to start shopping early. This shift leaves businesses and customers questioning what Cyber Month means for traditional shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

These events are beginning to evolve online, with more people holding out for Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday than ever, with Cyber Monday surpassing Black Friday sales in 2021 by $1.8 billion. Ongoing supply chain issues will continue to pressure these events in the coming years, but many businesses will seek ways to improve and salvage these events.

Omni-Channel Shopping

Blending functional technology with in-store experiences is vital in creating the hybrid shopping experience many shoppers are beginning to expect. This expectation is due to seeing the online capabilities of businesses at the peak of COVID-19 and hoping to see the comeback of pre-COVID in-store experiences. Businesses are adapting to this new environment by having the option to come into the store for pre-ordered pick-up, reaching the customer online, convincing them to bypass slow shipping times to drive the in-store traffic.

Nowadays, it’s not just the sales that get shoppers in the door, but it is reaching them with online touchpoints to getting them in the door with in-store pick-up options and experiences; these are the real heroes of the 2021 holiday season.

Supply Chain Growing Pains

The growth of online holiday shopping in the wake of COVID-19 forced manufacturing and shipping industries to grow at a nearly impossible rate causing pain for both businesses and consumers. There were over 2 billion out-of-stock messages online in October 2021, before the bulk of the holiday sales even began. This global supply chain crisis has affected holiday shoppers’ shipping times and general needs year over year.



Large retailers like Target, Walmart, and Costco have chartered their own shipping container ships to take over their supply chain and rise above this crisis. This is the first of many steps for retailers and online sellers to adapt to these growing pains in the global supply chain.

Are you struggling to keep up with the trends? Reach out to Strategis, your full-service marketing agency to access a wide range of methods that will help you keep up during every season. 

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