Grasping the 2020 hot shopping trends that are defining the 2020 holiday shopping season is important. It gives your business a foundation for planning. You will know what products and services are in demand. If you fail to recognize the importance of customer behavior trends in time. This, in turn, affects the quality of the customer experience you provide. 
It is important for you as a business to understand these patterns in order to capture the momentum of their competition.
The 2020 holiday shopping season is different. Understanding this gives you a solid base from which to plan what to sell and how to offer it. Retailers who do not understand what to offer are often left in the lurch when it comes to choosing the products and services that will capture the attention of their customers.
After experiencing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, you now have the blueprint to work with for the rest of the holiday season.
2020 Hot Shopping Trends Require Businesses to Extend Online Discount Sales
One of the biggest holiday shopping trends is Ecommerce which in the past few days took the world by storm. This year online sales have been the highest in the history of online sales. According to Forbes, this year’s online sales for both Black Friday and Thanksgiving were $14 billion. Last year online sales amounted to $9 billion which is 21.6% less than this year.
This means that customer service strategies need to make more room to accommodate a larger number of customers buying online unlike in previous years. Extending online sales can be a huge advantage for your business as customers have shown that they are willing to spend online.
What is nice about E-commerce is that consumers have the ability to buy things they need and not have to search too much. Consumers can search for the products they need and then choose the best one. This can help you to focus more on the customer service aspect of things since other departments may have less pressure.
We are still in the gift season and extending sales such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday can be a huge advantage for both you and your customers.
Customer Loyalty
During the holiday season, while many people are shopping and taking advantage of deals, it is a good time to build customer loyalty. Loyalty is developed by giving customers the things they want or need.
This could be in the form of a free report or a discounted product, or even just an increase in your offer price. Building loyalty also requires you to understand what exactly your customers need especially considering that most people are at home most of the time.
Needs and expectations when it comes to products and services are changing. The data that your customer service department collected during the peak of sales can aid your business in providing customers what they want and need.
While it is great to cater to new customers. It can also be more beneficial to concentrate more on old customers. Even though the holiday season is a good time to attract new customers, it may be more important to focus on the ones that buy from you already. Since we are still in the middle of a pandemic it is important to maintain customers that have stood by you during difficult times.
Give giveaways. Provide deals based on loyalty, do whatever you can to appreciate your loyal customers because people are more alert on issues to do with the quality of services and people are opting to spend their money on businesses that are more concerned with their needs.
2020 has been difficult for the most part and people look forward to holidays to lift up their spirits and it is important that as a business you are a part of that.
It’s Gifting Season
A large percentage of the population is still spending their money on gifts that are going to be personalized for them. Lifestyles have changed since people are now spending more time at home.
These people are likely to be looking for something that reflects their personalities and their newfound interests. Customers are now more interested in what they are buying. They are going to be much more likely to ask questions when they have questions.
This means that customers expect to feel like they are being treated with understanding more than before.
The business owner that can show a customer that they are the boss and that they are in charge of their purchases is going to be far more likely to receive referrals from that customer. Businesses who take a stand on how they treat their clients will be able to gain a higher rating from consumers.
Use Customer Service Data to Predict 2020 Hot Shopping Trends
In Conclusion, the most critical shopping days have passed, look at your customer service statistics to predict what people are looking for the most. Have solutions before the problems that arise. This will make your service fast and reliable. It will also make your customer service agents less anxious to deal with customers.
Please Comment
- Do you think it is a good idea to extend the sale period?
- What other benefits can businesses get from using customer service data and statistics?
- What other ways can businesses increase customer loyalty during this season?
Jim Rembach is the Editor in Chief of the Customer Service Weekly and it’s Podcast host. He is President of CX Global Media and the creator of the Call Center Coach Virtual Leaders Academy. As the host of the Fast Leader Show Podcast, he has interviewed hundreds of experts, authors, academics, researchers, and practitioners on various angles, viewpoints, and perspectives for improving the customer experience. He has held positions in retail operations, contact centers, customer support, customer success, sales, and measured the customer experience. He is a certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner, Employee Retention Specialist, and recipient of numerous industry awards.