Christmas Retail Trends Inspire Capturing last minute shoppers for Christmas 2016, delivery trends and the rise of Afterpay AUSTRALIA 1
Key Takeaways The countdown is well and truly on for Christmas and although consumers know it happens every year, they still seem to find themselves running out of precious time to prepare! Buying gifts for friends, family and loved ones is often one of the biggest stresses of the holiday season. This inspire looks into different shopping trends in the lead up to Christmas 2015; Christmas gift searches, last minute shopper audience and delivery services to make final adjustments to your 2016 campaigns. It also provides analysis on Afterpay, which has shown a jump in popularity. 1) Product Demand Searches for men made up 2.76% of all gift searches in the run up to Christmas last year, followed by her with 1.74%. These keywords alongside girl, dad, boy and mum are great topics to cover in final Christmas campaigns or ads that focus on present ideas tailored for these groups. 2) Last Minute Shoppers Audience Breaking the myth that it s men who buy their gifts last minute, this audience is more likely to be females aged 25-34 years old who engage with lifestyle, bridal, pregnancy and personalised gift sites. 3) Delivery Trends Free delivery searches were consistently the most popular throughout Christmas 2015, whereas same day delivery searches peaked the week of Christmas. Any retailers with this offering can push this message to consumers to maximise on capturing these last minute gift shoppers. 4) Afterpay Audience The Afterpay audience over-indexes for women aged 25-34 years old. They also over-index for the household income bracket of $60k-$79k, most likely because this payment method allows them to overcome financial constraints, supported by the fact they also searched for Christmas loans. 2
Christmas gift searches Key search insights from 2015 Consumers hoping to purchase last minute Christmas gifts online pose a great opportunity for retailers, but at such a competitive time it s important to understand demand and the audience driving this demand in order to optimise. The tables below highlight the most successful Christmas gift searches and the top searches that were person specific in the run up to Christmas 2015 as a good gauge of trends we should expect in 2016; Christmas gift ideas was the top search term highlighting that consumers go online to seek inspiration when they might be stuck on what to buy. In fact ideas made up 3.26% of searches for Christmas gifts and presents. Looking at the top gift and present searches during this period shows that gifts for men and gift ideas for men were the most successful searches. The first reference to the festive season was Christmas gifts for her ranking in 10 th place. This highlights that consumers don t always reference the festive season in their search behaviour, an important consideration for the final festive push. Top Christmas/ Xmas gift and present related searches Christmas gift ideas DIY Christmas gifts Christmas gifts Christmas present ideas Homemade Christmas gifts Christmas gifts for her Xmas gift ideas Christmas gifts for dad Christmas gift ideas 2015 Christmas presents Top Gift and Present related terms with person specific searches Gifts for men Gift ideas for men Gifts for her Gift ideas for women Gifts for dad Gifts for mum Presents for dad Presents for men Gifts for him Christmas gifts for her *4 rolling weeks ending 26 December 2015 3
Top Performers: Christmas Gifts Leading brands last year vs. this year so far Below are the top 5 brands receiving the most traffic from Christmas gift searches in Christmas 2015 vs. Christmas 2016 so far; Top brands for Gift searches Christmas 2015 Website Search Clicks (%) RedBalloon 3.61% Pinterest has seen a 1.84% decrease in search clicks from Christmas gift terms year on year Big W 2.87% Hardtofind 2.82% Pinterest 2.47% Gifts Australia 2.15% *4 weeks ending 26 th December 2015 RedBalloon received 100% paid clicks last year for terms such as gifts for mum Australia, Christmas gift ideas for fiancé and Xmas gifts for mum Top brands for Gift searches Christmas 2016 Website Search Clicks (%) Yellow Octopus 9.82% Yellow Octopus has increased their share of christmas gift searches by 7.93% year on year Hardtofind 7.53% RedBalloon 5.13% Gifts Australia 4.81% Uncommon Goods 3.41% *4 weeks ending 10 th December 2016 Uncommon Goods are receiving solely organic clicks from terms such as gift ideas for men, unique christmas gifts for her, christmas gifts for couples and cool gifts for teenage guys 4
Last Minute Shoppers Who was the last minute Christmas shopping audience? Understanding the audience behind Christmas gift searches from last year can help inform targeted campaigns in the last few weeks of this year. Creating a segment in AudienceView of gift searchers provides the following consumer insights: Last Minute Christmas Gift Audience Audience Size Age Gender Geography Mosaic Household Income 231k people 25 34 years old (Index: 163) Female (62.55%) ACT (Index: 122) B Knowledgeable Success (Index: 126) $60,000 - $79,999 (Index: 130) Heavily over-indexed for females aged 25-34, breaking the myth that it s men that always do their shopping last minute More likely than the online population to be found on lifestyle, bridal and pregnancy sites Far more likely to engage with personalised gifts sites as well as male gifts sites, offering accessories and sports memorabilia News & Media sites to over-index Website Brides.com Wmagazine.com Todaysparent.com Womanandhome.com Retail Brands to over-index Website Personalisedcreations.com Tiesncuffs.com.au Customizedgirl.com Ufcstore.com *4 weeks ending 26 th December 2015 vs the Online Population 5
Delivery Desires What were the most popular delivery search variations last year? Consumers are increasingly turning to the online for their Christmas shopping, whether it be for research or purchases, with the Department Store Industry seeing an increase of over 5.3M visits from December 2014 to December 2015. Deliveries have become an increasingly important part of this process. The graph below shows the seasonality and demand for free, same day and next day delivery searches over Christmas 2015. Free delivery was consistently the most popular search; something for retailers to consider at this time of year when trying to entice consumers to purchase from them. There were numerous Coles and Woolworths free delivery searches in the fastest moving terms at the start of January implying that consumers may be more interested in online grocery shopping at the start of the year, potentially to avoid January sales madness. The term online gifts australia free delivery increased 7% from week ending 12 th to week ending 19 th December. Same day delivery searches peaked the week of Christmas last year. Any retailers with this offering can push this message to consumers to maximise on these last minute Christmas shoppers. Seasonality of Delivery Searches 0.004% 0.004% Coles online free delivery Woolworths free delivery 0.003% 0.003% Online gifts Australia free delivery 0.002% 0.002% 0.001% 0.001% 0.000% *52 weeks ending 5 th March 2016 Free Delivery Same Day Delivery Next Day Delivery 6
Afterpay Rises in Popularity Afterpay performance and the industries to benefit Christmas is an expensive time of year, and Afterpay offers consumers some relief. Afterpay is a payment method that allows you to pay for goods in interestfree installments as opposed to a lump sum. The graph below shows the growth in visits to the Afterpay website over the last year. Visits peaked week ending 10 th December with 238,072 Total Visits and with the start of December visits have jumped exponentially as the offering looks to have resonated with consumers doing their Christmas shopping. 250,000 200,000 Website Visit Performance 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 *52 weeks ending 10 th December 2016 Clickstream data shows the top shopping industries visited following Afterpay in November were the Apparel & Accessories category (14%), followed by Department Stores (3%) and Sport & Fitness (3%). Searches for Afterpay increased 186% year on year and the top keywords used in searches 4 weeks ending 10 th December included stores and shops, indicating that individuals are researching which stores have this payment method. The top brands associated with Afterpay were Nike, Lego and Sketchers. 7
Afterpay Audience Insights What does the audience behind Afterpay look like? With Afterpay s increased momentum in the retail industry it s advantageous to understand the consumers interested in using it, particularly for those who want to understand what audience they will attract with this offering. Using AudienceView we created a segment of people visiting or searching for Afterpay in the lead up to Christmas 2016 vs. the online population; The Afterpay audience consisted of 64k unique users 25-34 year olds was the most over-indexed age group 69% of this audience was female Females aged 25-34 were 2.6x times more likely to be interested in Afterpay The Household Income of this audience falls into the less affluent bracket $60k-$79k indicating that they are likely to be interested in this because of financial constraints Mosaic Group I - Books and Boots were the top to over-index. This group is made up of a younger demographic, typically students in urban areas Audience size: 64k people Gender: 69% female Mosaic Group: I Books & Boots Household Income: $60,000 $79,999 *4 weeks ending 10 th December 2016 vs the online population. 8
Afterpay Audience Insights Pt. 2 How does this audience search and where can you target them? Looking a little closer at the search terms this audience is more likely to use helps us understand more about them and the products which retailers may want to push in association with Afterpay. Gift related searches to over-index Finance related searches to over-index Gift ideas boyfriend Christmas Gift ideas for mum Good teacher gifts Chocolate gift hampers Christmas gift ideas for teenage boys Christmas loan Christmas loans How to make money for christmas News & Media sites to over-index for Afterpay audience Cosmopolitan Mercury.com.au Grazia NY Mag Harpers Bazaar Knowing which sites to advertise Afterpay offerings with can be particularly helpful for retailers looking to increase sales on big ticket items in the last weeks of Christmas and even into January. *4 weeks ending 10 th December 2016 vs the online population. 9
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