[Guide] Consumer Insights & Strategies for the 2021 Holiday Shopping Season

There’s no doubt that every online retailer wants the best strategy possible to make the most of big revenue-driving shopping days like Black Friday.

But it takes more than relying on past year’s data to get it right. At a time of changing societal norms, it’s more important than ever to know what matters to today’s shopper.

At Outbrain, we surveyed thousands of consumers worldwide to help retailers and brands understand how people are planning to buy for the 2021 holiday shopping season. Based on those findings, we’ve packaged a full set of recommendations for you to have your most successful season yet!

3 Recommendations for the 2021 Holiday Shopping Season 

1. Plan for cross-border strategies

Fashion, travel, and beauty are among the categories expected to see the greatest increase in online shopping spend over the next six months. More importantly, shoppers have no hesitation to make purchases from brands outside of their home market, with 71% of them buying exported products in the last year. We recommend leveraging a cross-border strategy in order to grow your business, and highlight the markets with the highest and most cost-efficient engagement potential.

2. Promote deals through video content

Globally, 61% of shoppers say watching a video about a product is important to their purchase decision. As a great opportunity to engage with audiences and drive seasonal revenue, we recommend video-first strategies to get your offers discovered across digital touchpoints of a buyer’s journey. Included among our ad experiences is Outbrain’s design-patented and award-winning Click-to-Watch Video Smartad! 

3. Drive engagement on the open web

Consumers want quality recommendations from reputable brands, with the top two factors of engaging with ads being that they meet personal interests and are trustworthy. As cookies continue to decline and marketers of all types start to focus on attributable outcomes for their media campaigns, native advertising on the open web becomes a more important and meaningful way to grow business. We recommend driving engagement and action, based on contextual solutions that are powered by unique relationships with leading media owners. 

Curious to know more about consumers’ intentions during the most important sales period of the year? Get all the insights and recommendations from our guide!