Digiday+ Research: E-commerce faces competition this holiday season, while brands focus social content on hauls and unboxing

Here’s what we found:

E-commerce faces competition from social media, Amazon and other retailers

Among the sales channels assessed in Digiday’s survey of brand, retailer and agency pros, e-commerce has had the greatest usage during the holiday sales season in recent years — this year included. However, the rate of respondents’ e-commerce use has decreased since last year, when 85% said they use their own e-commerce sites to sell during the holidays. This year, 78% of respondents will use their own e-commerce sites during the holiday shopping season — not a massive drop, but still a noteworthy one.

On the other hand, brands’ planned use of social commerce and retailers (including Amazon) during the holiday season has increased in comparison to last year. Social commerce, specifically, is set to see a big jump, from 61% last year to 71% this year.

It’s possible that brands’ plans to increase their use of social commerce this year can be attributed in part to Gen Z and millennial consumers using social media as a point of discovery for new products and services. As these consumers seek out gift ideas on social media platforms during the holiday season, social commerce’s importance as a sales channel is likely to rise.

A recent research report from ad platform Basis Technologies and market research firm GWI found an increase in purchase intent among Gen Zers on social media platforms. According to the study, 20% of U.S. internet users across age groups ranging from 18 to 65-plus plan to buy holiday gifts directly through social media this year. However, as a generation, Gen Z consumers are much more likely to buy directly through social platforms, with 42% of consumers in that group saying they are likely to purchase holiday gifts through social media in 2024.

Brand, retailer and agency pros also told Digiday they plan to increase their use of Amazon and other retailers as sales channels during the 2024 holiday season, compared with 2023 — although only slightly. Forty-nine percent of respondents said this year that they plan to use retailers other than Amazon for their holiday sales, compared with 48% last year. While 46% said this year they plan to use Amazon, compared with 44% last year.

The competition present from others selling via Amazon and other retailers during the holiday season is likely a downside to the sales channels considered by brands when planning their holiday strategies. But, in the case of Amazon, specifically, it’s possible that the retail giant’s retail media network and its streaming platform Prime Video position it as strong retail partner for brands during the holiday season.

Amazon has made a concerted push to attract more advertisers to launch streaming TV advertising campaigns on Prime Video, including pitching its trove of first-party data so brands can more precisely target ads. Amazon has even started producing video commercials for brands that commit to spending $15,000 a month over 90 days on its streaming platforms, with extra perks for brands that spend more with the platform — an interesting incentive for brands heading into the holiday season.

Brands will put an emphasis on gift guides, hauls this holiday season

Digiday’s survey found that brands and retailers are betting on gift guides and haul and unboxing videos featuring influencers over other marketing tactics during the holiday season this year. More than half of brand, retailer and agency pros (55%) said this year that they plan to use gift guides as a marketing tool during the holidays, and just about half of respondents to Digiday’s survey (51%) said they plan to use haul and unboxing videos featuring influencers.

This makes sense, as these tactics are meant to inspire consumers, most of whom are looking to buy gifts during this time of year. And, according to Bazaarvoice’s consumer insights study, 40% of U.S. holiday shoppers will check positive and negative reviews of products before making purchasing decisions.

This also makes sense according to Digiday’s survey, because the largest percentage of brand, retailer and agency respondents said that gift guides and haul and unboxing videos have historically performed the best for their companies during the holiday season. Thirty-seven percent of brands, retailers and agencies said this this year.

An emphasis on influencer content has historically proven successful for financial services brand Afterpay and Cash App.

“Our largest campaign work with influencers happens during the holiday season, where our goal is to raise awareness and engagement of Afterpay’s platform,” said Alison Meyer, head of commerce marketing at Afterpay and Cash App. “We work collaboratively with our brand ambassadors to align on the content that fits their niche, and provide any relevant messaging to anchor them on how to use Afterpay, but largely leave the creative concepting up to them so the end result still feels organic to their audiences.”

“We’ve historically seen immense success with our fashion creators and are starting to see the same success among new creator archetypes across home, beauty, fitness, pet, travel and more,” Meyer added.

Similarly, outlet-based retailer Tanger has used haul videos featuring influencers as a way to capture younger shoppers. “For our younger consumers, we’re finding that they love shopping live in our stores, then presenting on TikTok their shopping haul and opening up their bags and displaying the things that they bought at our center,” president and CEO Stephen Yalof said. “We find that to be incredibly effective.”

Alvaro De La Rocha, CMO at digital menswear and lifestyle company Bespoke Post, said unboxing videos are performing well for the company. “A lot of the ads that work for us are actually user-generated content,” De La Rocha said. “It’s influencers and content creators we send products to, to get their honest reactions. It has that authenticity and that genuineness versus a brand talking to you.”

However, rather than paying influencers for each post, Bespoke Post is building up its gifting program, in which the brand sends free products to influencers and asks them to post their authentic reactions to the items. “It’s less pay for play. We’re not paying them to create content for us, but rather saying, ‘Try this cast iron set out and post a video about it,’” De La Rocha said. “We’ve stepped away from paying large-scale influencers to talk about us. Now it’s more organic and authentic — gifting a product, and getting them to talk about our offering.”

On the other end of the spectrum, CTV and streaming ads and physical catalogs and direct mail tied for second-to-last in Digiday’s survey this year among the marketing tactics that brands have historically used during the holiday season. Just 19% of respondents said the tactics have performed well for their companies.

However, that 19% represents a significant upswing for those tactics this year compared to last year, when 10% of brands, retailers and agencies said physical catalogs and direct mail were historically a top-performing holiday marketing tactic, and just 6% said the same of CTV and streaming ads.

This trend is reflected in holiday season selling for Bespoke Post, which began sending a 20-page holiday catalog to potential customers in 2022 and found the tactic to be successful.

“What’s increased over recent years was actually direct mail,” Bespoke Post’s De La Rocha said. “Since then, we’ve continued with that tactic.”

“With the rise of digital channels, a lot of older ‘traditional channels’ have been forgotten about, and what happens is less demand and more attractive pricing. Then people start testing [these traditional channels], and it starts working,” De La Rocha added.

The timing of direct mail ads, in particular, is crucial, according to De La Rocha. “I avoid being early on direct mail because you lose some of that response rate,” he said. “If you’re hitting, let’s say, early October, someone may be gifting, and they may consider you. But once people are actually shopping, which with an election this year, may even shift later  — you risk being lost.”