Holiday shopping 2022—how retail brands can keep Black Friday momentum going

Businesses are experiencing their own version of “A Christmas Carol.” They don’t need to be reminded about holidays past—they know what we’ve weathered. And they’re leery about what the ghost of holidays future might bring: Yes, we’re transitioning out of pandemic footing, but into what? Recessionary fears abound, fighting with inflation for the public’s attention. That puts a lot of pressure on what is hopefully the friendliest spirit, that of holidays present.

The good news is that the start of the shopping season—Black Friday weekend—was promising, setting records for both online sales and number of shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores. The key now is ensuring that the big start doesn’t hollow out later sales. The Harris Poll surveyed consumer sentiment to tease out how to do that and have come up with three key insights for making these holidays happy.

First, it’s important to understand the consumer mood. They largely have a status quo disposition: About half (52%) said that they plan to spend as much during the winter holiday season overall compared to last year. And while 22% plan to spend more, a roughly equivalent number (20%) aim to spend less.

Looking more closely at different spending categories, most Americans plan to spend the same as last year, though there are variations at the fringes: Among those who expect to lay out a different amount, greater numbers plan to spend more on food, travel and—importantly—holiday sales event purchases (as borne out by the Black Friday numbers); and they are aiming to spend less on seasonal décor—it’s not a good year to sell tinsel. 

That said, spending more doesn’t necessarily mean buying more. When we asked what factors most impact their seasonal plans, price was the most-cited response, with 4 in 5 Americans pointing to it—no surprise given the scope of the inflation we’ve seen this year. And 71% said that product availability (e.g., supply chain issues) is also having an impact. 

Money isn’t the only thing weighing on Americans’ minds this holiday season. A clear majority (55%) still say that the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing their holiday plans, a trend seen among Gen Z (64%), millennials (57%) and Gen X (58%). In fact, baby boomers are the only cohort where a majority isn’t letting the pandemic affect their holiday season, with 57% noting that it hasn’t thus far.

With that in mind, here are three ways brands can try to maintain the splurge that started on Black Friday:

Be social with your media

Many Americans agree that what they see on social media helps them decide what to buy during the holidays (51%) and where to shop (52%). There is a strong age gap here, however: Majorities of Gen Zers (74%), millennials (68%) and Gen Xers (53%) take their holiday shopping cues from social media. Boomers are less “socially” inclined, with strong majorities (74% and 71% respectively) eschewing it.

Some social media platforms may be more effective shopping tools—both for consumers and retailers—than others. Facebook (70%), YouTube (60%) and Instagram (52%) were by far the most-offered answers when we asked about which platforms people use to help plan their holiday shopping. (Twitter, which has been bleeding advertisers since its change in ownership, was fifth with 23%, behind Tik Tok at 35% and just head of Snapchat at 21%.)

Remember the reason for the (shopping) season

Shoppers are concerned about inflation and prices, but that doesn’t mean they want holiday advertising to evoke those worries. In fact, when we asked about the tones and themes consumers want this season, spend-centric messaging about price or discounts was not in the top five, with less than a third selecting each. Instead, people named “festive” (49%) and “funny” (43%) to describe the kind of ads which would appeal. They really do want this to be the most wonderful time of the year. By contrast, the lowest-performing themes we tested were “serious” (10%) and “tear-jerking” (8%). The lesson here for advertisers is to put the holly and jolly into their spots. It’s a special time of year—ensure that your messaging reflects that.

To paraphrase the Duke brothers: “Sale! Sale!”

People may not want to hear about savings in ads, but don’t doubt that they’re bargain-hunting. More than 4 in 5 Americans (82%) know their holiday budget and two-thirds (64%) of consumers put off purchases until the winter holidays in order to score deals. And an even larger number (69%) believe that holiday sales offer better bargains than other sales which occur during the year, perhaps because more than three-quarters (77%) believe that more products go on sale at this time of year. And there’s a bonus: More than 3 in 5 (63%) buy products during winter sales events that they normally would not purchase. Stores get this. “Retailers, some of them sitting on a glut of inventory … are barraging customers with discounts, hoping to entice them to buy before an economic slowdown causes a change in behavior once more,” The New York Times recently reported. 

Fear of the ghost of holidays future is, rightly, driving marketers and sellers during the holidays present. If they handle this month correctly, they might be able to build momentum toward a very happy new year.