One of my favorite things to do is window shop. I love walking down the street or through a mall and seeing which window displays lure me inside a store. During the holidays, that joy becomes heightened by the beautiful presentations that so many retailers create to delight and entice everyone passing by.
But increasingly, I notice that people are not stopping to look in store windows. Instead, they are looking at their phones. This led to a bit of a revelation: mobile phones are becoming the new holiday window.
Fortunately, retailers can just as easily stop someone in their tracks on a mobile phone as they can with a store window. Today, visual merchandising comes to life in a personalized way on a smartphone, creating inspirational moments that help shoppers discover and buy products.
As I talk to retailers in preparation for the 2018 holiday season, the conversation always focuses on how mobile campaigns inspire and move people into action. This is imperative because a study commissioned by Facebook IQ with Ipsos Marketing in January 2018 showed people want to be more efficient with their shopping behavior this year.
When people want new ways to save time, save money and discover ideas for gifting, how can marketers help improve the shopping experience and win the holidays?
Mobile is a holiday time saver
There’s no doubt that things can get hectic during the holidays. A third of holiday shoppers in the U.S. are last-minute shoppers, finishing their shopping just weeks before the holidays. We’re expecting this trend to continue, and see people rely on their smartphones to help during this time.
Per the Facebook IQ/Ipsos study, 43 percent of U.S. shoppers say their mobile will help them get things done in their spare time during the holidays, and 43 percent will also use mobile for holiday shopping because it is more convenient than going to a store.
Marketers who prioritize helping customers save time during the holiday season will tap into this need to improve shopping behaviors this year.
Mobile is a money saving device
Did you know 90 percent of all shopping still happens in store? While shoppers push a cart with one hand, they’re holding a mobile with the other.
Last year, nearly 48 percent of surveyed holiday shoppers agreed their mobile device allows them to make more informed purchase decisions during the holidays, according to the Facebook IQ/Ipsos study.
And in that same study, 56 percent of all holiday shoppers use a mobile phone while in a store to compare prices and products, and to look for discounts to use in the store.
Marketers looking to win the holidays should strategize around in-store mobile usage, and help customers make the best decisions and find value while they’re simultaneously browsing the aisles and their phones.
Mobile is a gift concierge
While time and money constraints contribute to the stress of the holidays, an even bigger stressor can be personal reputation. In the survey, 60 percent of shoppers told us they want to buy impressive gifts (i.e., something more than a gift card). To do that, shoppers need gifting inspiration.
Marketers can break through the holiday noise by making it easier for shoppers to discover new ideas, and make informed decisions about gift buying. Ads need to stand out and stop people in their tracks, just like a holiday shop window.
To drive impact on mobile phones, we’ve seen that video ads that deliver the key message in the first few seconds correlate with stronger brand and message recall.
While there is no definitive “right” amount of branding to stand out in feed, we know that including branding elements early also helps improve outcomes.
And it shouldn’t be a surprise, but storytelling creative wins. Telling that story in a shorter and more visually compelling way tends to have an advantage in feed environments like Facebook and Instagram.
Inspiration happens on mobile, and mobile is Facebook and Instagram
When you think about how to reach people with the new mobile storefront, you have to think about Facebook. We are a mobile-first company, and more people visit Facebook’s family of apps on mobile than any other.
It’s also the home for inspiration. U.S. Millennial holiday shoppers are two times more likely to seek advice about gifts from others on Instagram, and 70 percent say Facebook is somewhat or very influential in their holiday shopping.
This year, gift buyers will be looking for ways to save time and money, and for new sources of inspiration, creating a great opportunity for marketers who want to stand out in this busy season. Mobile can be a solution for each of these consumer needs. Be sure that your mobile strategy isn’t an afterthought. It should be the heart of your holiday planning so you stop shoppers in their tracks and stand out during the crucial holiday window.
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As group lead, Eva Press leads Facebook’s sales and account teams in the U.S. for the CPG, healthcare and retail verticals. She and her teams focus on partnering with large, complex, traditional advertisers to navigate the disruptions that are shaping the marketing landscape.
