Tips for Targeting Last-Minute Christmas Shoppers Online

With Cyber Weekend becoming a bigger and busier event every year, online retailers’ Q4 efforts are often aimed at early bird Christmas shoppers, who begin searching for deals around Black Friday and have finished buying their gifts long before Christmas Day.

However, many holiday shoppers still remain immune to the excitement surrounding BFCM weekend. Plenty of buyers instead prefer to save their spending until late December, after the main Christmas shopping rush is over.

To prevent losing out on potential revenue from these last-minute eCommerce shoppers, it’s essential you target them using strategies that match their unique behaviours and needs.

Understanding last-minute Christmas shopping habits

The number of last-minute gift buyers is higher than you might think. Only 25% of consumers will have completed their Christmas shopping by the 18th of December.¹ This leaves 75% of shoppers still looking to purchase last-minute holiday gifts the week before Christmas.

Ensuring you appeal to this large market of consumers is key if you want to boost your Christmas eCommerce conversions. 

However, this can be challenging as last-minute holiday shoppers are often under time pressure, indecisive, or financially constrained and could be delaying their festive purchases due to:

• Waiting for deals: Some buyers might hold off making a purchase as long as possible in hopes they will snag some last-minute holiday deals.
• Budget constraints: Christmas can be expensive, and shoppers will need time to save up funds before they can spend.
• Lack of time: There will be parties to plan, children’s Christmas plays to attend, and business to wrap up at work, leaving shoppers with little time to spend searching for gifts.
• Dislike of shopping or uncertainty about what to buy: December retail sales can be overwhelming meaning some shoppers might put off making purchases until they absolutely have to.
• Difficulty finding specific products: The many deals in circulation at Christmas time can mean it takes longer for shoppers to find what they are looking to buy.

Understanding the issues driving the behaviour of last-minute shoppers will better equip you to design eCommerce strategies that will be effective in late Q4.

How to boost last-minute Christmas sales

As there are many different reasons why consumers choose to carry out last-minute Christmas shopping, you need to apply a combination of strategies that will help meet these shoppers’ various needs and encourage them to convert.

Let’s explore some of the approaches you can take this festive period to both make shoppers’ lives easier and drive your conversions.

1. Generate urgency with time-limited deals and messaging

Shoppers are more likely to convert if you give them what they want, and in the case of last-minute Christmas discount hunters, they want a good deal. 

Offering discounts, free shipping, or running sales can effectively drive these Christmas deal seekers to purchase. However, consider combining these strategies with deadlines to help create holiday shopping urgency and encourage earlier conversions.

Utilise On-Site Messaging with countdown timers to let customers know that time is running out on:

• Flash sale access
• Eligibility for competitor price matching
• Availability of discount codes or free shipping

Leveraging these techniques will make it less likely for consumers to jump between sites searching for the best price, and motivate them to buy sooner rather than later.

2. Increase affordability by offering flexible payment options

Plenty of customers would choose to buy well in advance of holiday shopping deadlines if they could, however, many simply can’t afford to.

Solve this issue for your customers by providing flexible ways to pay such as those provided by Klarna and Afterpay to allow buyers to ‘pay later’ or ‘pay in instalments’ on their festive purchases.

Ensure shoppers are aware of the flexible payment options available to them by promoting it in search and on-site using Search Promotions and on-site notifications.

By enabling your customers to spread the cost of their purchase, you incentivise earlier purchasing and stand out from competitors who don’t offer this, making it more likely consumers will choose to shop sooner with you.

3. Optimise your site for on-the-go shopping

When carrying out urgent holiday shopping, buyers will often be in a rush and browsing on the go using their mobile devices.

These time-pressed shoppers will not be willing to wait for your site or search results to load, or struggle through a clunky mobile version of your website to find products. If faced with any of these issues, they will likely exit and shop with a competitor instead.

Keep these users on your site and help them to find products easily by ensuring your online store is optimised for mobile and loads quickly. Install a search function such as Salesfire’s AI-powered Search to instantly deliver accurate search results to your shoppers.

Providing a pleasant user experience will increase the likelihood of shoppers remaining on your site long enough to convert, preventing you from losing out to your competitors on Q4 revenue from on-the-go shoppers.

4. Provide personalised recommendations and gift suggestions

Having the choice of so many products when Christmas shopping online can lead to many customers experiencing decision paralysis.

Give these shoppers a helping hand by making some of the decisions for them, reducing their overwhelm and simplifying the process of choosing a gift. 

Here are a couple of strategies you can use to do this.

On-site Recommendations

Prevent shoppers from having to search through your entire eCommerce store to find products they like. Leverage Salesfire’s Recommendations to analyse shoppers’ browsing behaviour and purchase history using AI, and display highly relevant on-site product suggestions.

Personalised email gift guides

Pair Recommendations with Email Sequences to deliver personalised Christmas gift ideas directly to customers’ inboxes, making finding a gift much less intimidating.

Minimising the decisions your shoppers have to make will benefit both them and your brand. Not only is it easier for buyers to make a purchase decision, but this also means they will be more likely to convert.

5. Make product discovery quick and easy

Shoppers who struggle to find what they are looking for during last-minute holiday sales will often bounce straight from your site.

Prevent shoppers from immediately exiting your site by ensuring they can quickly and easily navigate to the pages and products they want to reach.

There are a few ways you can ensure that shoppers are easily connected with their perfect products. 

Ensure effortless navigation

Your site navigation should be clear, simple, and easy to follow on all device types so that shoppers do not get frustrated and can quickly find products no matter where they are.

Expand your search functionalities

Enhance your customers’ search experiences with functions such as Salesfire’s Visually Similar Search which allows shoppers to search using image inspiration from social media or family and friends. This allows last-minute Christmas shoppers with high buying intent to easily find the specific products they are looking for.

The quicker you unite buyers with their ideal product, the more positive opinion they will have of your brand, improving the chance of them purchasing from you this festive period.

Wrapping everything up

Adapting your eCommerce strategy for last-minute Christmas shopping can seem overwhelming, but as long as your site is easy to use and offers shoppers a personalised experience, you will encourage those late Q4 conversions.

Optimising your site in these ways will be a worthwhile investment, driving increased sales year-round and not just in the peak months.

¹ UK consumers scramble for last-minute Christmas shopping | Retail Insight Network