Christmas is here! It may not feel like it as it’s still only October but if you want the public to be looking at your business and buying your products and services then the time to plan and implement your strategies is now. Get your digital marketing right and it will be a very merry Christmas.

Globally there is a large bump in consumer spend at the Holiday season and advertisers are always looking for the best way to drive sales at this time.

The internet is alive with statistics and trends that dig right down into understanding how consumers are shopping at Christmas, and how merchants are striving for their engagement and cash.

The internet continues its meteoric rise in the consumer’s life and hence the rise in advertisers’ spend as they hunt for that consumer spend.

Let’s look at the UK market forecast this Christmas time:

IMRG and Experian Marketing Services, estimate that more than 300 million visits will be made to retail websites on December 25th and 26th.

Of these, 142 million visits will take place on Christmas Day, with a further 167 million coming the following day. This will mark an increase of traffic of 25 per cent and 29 per cent respectively when compared with 2015.

Although Black Friday is set to displace Boxing Day as the busiest shopping day of the year in 2016, December 26th is still set to see some £748 million spent online – for an average of £519,000 every minute. Meanwhile, Christmas Day sales will total £636 million, or £441,000 per minute.

Giles Longhurst, General Manager for consumer insight at Experian Marketing Services, observed that 2014 has already been a record-breaking year for online shopping sales, particularly on Black Friday, when the huge resources firms put into promotions and deals led to “astronomical” sales of £810 million.

He added that to take advantage of the opportunities available, retailers need to switch on to the changes that are taking place in the retail sector.

Firstly, he noted that consumers are happy to leave online shopping for later in the festive season. Mr Longhurst highlighted a 24 per cent increase in the number of visits to retail sites on Manic Monday – December 8th – as well as a big 38 per cent jump on December 15th, to 146 million visits, as consumers push pre-Christmas delivery services to the limit.

“Secondly, online shopping is now a leisure activity for customers, with many enjoying browsing and hunting for deals when they have a few minutes,” he added. “This is where the importance of accurate cross-channel communications can really come in to play, letting customers know about promotions and offers and really cutting through the noise to drive interest and traffic.”

Right on, Giles! Read more at: https://www.iabuk.net/news/uk-shoppers-to-spend-636m-online-on-christmas-day#UzgX0lUGstcjpU8u.99

Last Christmas saw a record amount of TV advertising spend in the UK. Global advertising forecast by ZenithOptimedia saw that £310m (7.9 per cent of total UK ad spend) was spent in December – a historic high for TV advertising spend during the Christmas season in the UK. This was up from £287 million in 2014.

Television remains the dominant advertising medium for now, with a 38 per cent share of total ad spend in 2015. But this is set to change. The report predicts television’s share of global advertising spend to drop from 38 per cent to 35 per cent by 2018. Instead, the report expects the internet to overtake television to become the largest single advertising medium in 2018.

That’s an amazing statistic. 20 years ago the internet has a 1% advertising share in the UK, minuscule compared to TV. However the rapid growth should be no surprise to those who have watched the internet transform into the primary video-viewing medium for young people. In particular, there’s been a surge in digital video advertising on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and streaming services like Hulu.

The message is clear. Consumers are using an ever increasing variety of internet based mediums to browse and buy and the advertisers are following this behaviour with their spend. It only looks set to increase.

Get your digital marketing right and it will be a very merry Christmas.