Prepare your eCommerce Business for reduced holiday spending

There is no doubt that the last few months have left an impact not only on retail and eCommerce businesses but also on consumer purchasing behaviors. Right now rising prices are the top concern of European consumers. And as Inflation is still rising, consumers are changing their behavior to keep up with it.

Even though some consumers can cut down on their spending does not mean that they will not shop at all for Christmas gifts. It just means they will more accurately look through offers. That implies this is the time when your eCommerce business needs to be competitive, efficient, and stand out from your competitors.

In this article, we will discuss recent Danish research and provide some tips on how your eCommerce business can be competitive, even when consumers are spending less.

Recent Danish research suggests that some Danes will cut down their spending during the Christmas season

According to Danish research, 26.5% of Danes will cut down spending on their Christmas gifts, while more than 50% are still expecting to spend roughly the same amount compared to 2021 and some even are expecting to spend more.

The research was conducted to understand Danes’ overall holiday consumption in general, but most of their answers are generally about how much they will spend on gifts. However, 18.7% of respondents said they will mostly spend their extra money on food rather than presents.

Louise Aggerstrøm, a chief analyst at Danske Bank, said: "You always have to be careful when you ask about people's consumption and whether they intend to spend more or less than last year because people can't remember that. So, the results are more of an expression of how people perceive their current economy to be".

While, deputy director of Dansk Erhverv, Henrik Hyltoft insists that in spite of increasing prices private consumption has remained largely unchanged. As a result, Danes spend about the same amount of money but bring home fewer things. He points out that this does not change the fact that there is now a lot of uncertainty surrounding holiday shopping this year.

He believes it is too early to predict how inflation and uncertain times will affect Christmas shopping. "But it is clear that the high inflation means that consumers think very carefully when they buy in these times," says Henrik Hyltoft.

3 tips on how your eCommerce business can stay competitive during the Christmas season

During the Christmas season and with the probability of consumers cutting down their spending your eCommerce business needs to stay competitive. Here are 3 tips to stay ahead.

1. Stay competitive in your market by matching the prices of your competitors

When consumers are searching for the lowest prices, it is important that your eCommerce business stay competitive. Use a Competitor Monitoring Tool to keep track of how your product pricing stacks up against those of your rivals. Find out which of your competitors are offering the most affordable prices for your goods by comparing their prices to yours.

Take into consideration that in 2022 discount stores’ turnovers have been increasing compared to last year, while retail turnover, in general, is decreasing. That means there is a probability that your competitors could try to match discount stores to stay competitive.

2. Optimize your product data feed for your eCommerce business

Your listings will be more relevant to your consumers' searches if you optimize your data feed. You must include as much relevant data as you can.

Using feed management tools you can:

• Create dynamic data rules and expressions to optimize your product feeds at scale.
• Add catchy features and keywords to product descriptions and titles.
• Eliminate non-compliant language and items with low supply from your feed.
• Use Dynamic Google Text Ads to occupy more space on search engine result pages (SERPs).

3. List your eCommerce products on Google LIA

Meet your customers where they are more likely to convert, and at a higher price than if they have to wait to have a product delivered. List your products with local availability on Google LIA, and bypass the competition while spending less on your ads. With Google LIA ads  you can outbid the competition by offering a lower price.

It has been demonstrated that listing your products through Google Local Inventory ads increases not only sales but also conversion rates and in-store purchases.

Be ready for it

Although it is difficult to anticipate what the future of eCommerce holds, you should prepare by maintaining your competitiveness in the event that consumers do decide to reduce their spending. Either way, you will only stand stronger by following the guidance above.

Are you uncertain about your feed performance?

At WakeupData we are all about your efficiency, that is why we offer a free Demo of our feed management platform, where you get a chance to talk to one of our feed experts and learn more about how you can take your business to the next level - or the next market if you are planning to expand globally.