2025 Holiday shopping trends: It’s complicated

We’re excited to introduce our new Q&A series, Ask the Expert! Ask the Expert will feature a series of conversations with product experts. We’ll spotlight and dive into the areas you care most about: identity resolution, targeting, attribution, and more. Our first segment features a conversation on Hashed Email. Jeff Tognetti, the Product Development Team Lead at DealerX joins us to chat with Experian’s Chief Revenue Officer, Chris Feo. Chris and Jeff review how to future-proof your identity strategy by exploring Hashed Email use cases, technical details, and offer an expert point of view on the cookieless future.   Let’s review a few highlights from their conversation. DealerX’s use case  When DealerX first started working with us, we focused on digital identity. DealerX wanted to understand the browsing habits of their first-party shoppers that relate to their clients:   What they’re doing  How they’re interacting with client sites and products  Apply those learnings to target them across the web   Eliminate ad fraud and targeting waste  Our partnership gave DealerX the ability to take an anonymous consumer from anywhere across their portfolio of customers and understand who they are, while in an anonymous state. Then, they could activate on any channel where that consumer may be in the market for a product. This allowed DealerX to resolve who these people are as they browse the web, leading to reduced ad spend and targeting waste.   This was the original and primary use case for DealerX when partnering with us. So, when did Hashed Email come into the mix for DealerX? Before we dive into the specifics, let’s take a step back and understand Hashed Email.  What is Hashed Email?  Hashed Email is a privacy-safe identifier that can further enrich the connection between the online (digital) and offline (real world) ecosystems. When paired with the Tapad Graph with access to Tapad’s universe of email data, it can provide maximum coverage for targeting and measurement when combined with IDs such as cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), connected TV (CTV) IDs, and IP addresses.  Email hashing uses a method of coding to transform an email address into a jumble of numbers and letters so that it’s fully pseudonymized and privacy safe. Hashed emails can then be used as a digital identifier when a user is logged in to that email and trace their activity – without linking back to the user’s real email address. This allows marketers to collect data on their users and understand their behavior without knowing their email address – a win for both consumer privacy and marketer insight.  DealerX & Hashed Email  DealerX was one of our first customers to onboard Hashed Email to the Tapad Graph. Adding Hashed Email gave them a privacy-compliant way to work with identity and resolve what a user did on their site. This allowed them to gain insight into where an ad and impression was served; even the day and time these actions occurred.  Now, we’re not the only data partner that DealerX works with. Many companies offer the notion of converting email to a digital ID in a privacy-safe way. How does DealerX evaluate the right data partner?  Evaluating the right data partner  When we say, ‘data partner,’ we’re referring to the data, the service, and the support. The most important characteristics to consider when choosing a data partner, according to DealerX, include:  Technical prowess  Efficiency  Agility  Scalability  Why did DealerX choose to partner with us? Our services met the characteristics they were looking for in a data partner. We grew the product by iterating on features that worked best for Jeff and his team. The rollout was organized, efficient, and lacked bureaucracy, which can slow down an implementation timeline.  While we started our relationship with DealerX as a vendor, now we're partners. How did we transition from vendor to partner? Transitioning from vendor to partner  The key to a great partnership is trust. It’s tough to navigate an ecosystem with numerous companies that claim to have the same products and services. The relationship will start off as vendor-client, and both teams will get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. As the vendor makes your work seamless and offers an efficient implementation process, the relationship turns into a partnership.  There’s more!  This is just a taste of Chris and Jeff’s conversation. Visit the Ask the Expert content hub to watch a recording of the conversation. Stay tuned for future segments in our Ask the Expert series. We’re just getting started!  Get in touch About DealerXIn just a few short years, DealerX has grown to serve 1,000’s of Tier 3 dealerships across all brands, enterprise partners and OEMs. Their keen approach to data, analytics, machine learning and programmatic initiatives have led DealerX to quickly become the most savvy player in the automotive space. DealerX has helped automotive retailers save 10’s of millions of dollars by avoiding fraud and eliminating wasteful ads pends, while dramatically reducing “cost per sale." In doing so, their partners significantly outperform those leveraging generic “one size fits all” competitive offerings. To learn more, visit their website at Dealerx.com.

While the weather outside is frightfully hot this summer, it’s never too soon to start thinking about the holidays – and consumers are more likely to start their holiday shopping early this year. To get you ready for the 2022 holiday shopping season, we looked back at consumer shopping trends from 2019-2021. What did we learn and what trends do we expect to see this year? Let’s look back. A look back Over the last three years, average consumer spending has increased. Record 2021 holiday sales came amidst a wave of COVID-19 cases, rising inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain problems. Despite these challenges, consumers continued to let it snow when it came to spending during the holiday season.  2022 has been a year with its own economic roadblocks – the war in Ukraine, rising gas prices, and recession concerns. Yet 2021 was a banner year for holiday sales despite its obstacles, and we predict similar trends in the 2022 holiday shopping season. What trends do we expect to see for the most wonderful time of the year?  2022 predictions While consumer spending remains strong, changing economic conditions continue to shape shopper behavior. To develop our predictions for 2022 holiday shopper behavior, we focused on four key areas: When consumers shop Where consumers shop What consumers purchase Consumer media preferences Now, let's make our holiday campaign planning checklist and check it twice. When consumers shop Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Those aren’t the only ways to know when the holiday season has begun. Shoppers tend to spread out their holiday purchases across multiple months and were more likely to start shopping earlier. To understand holiday retail sales trends from 2019-2021, we identified four shopper segments:  Early Shoppers Traditional Shoppers Late Shoppers Random Shoppers What differences did we see between our four shopper segments? Early shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in October Random shoppers spread out their holiday purchases evenly across multiple months Late shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in December Traditional shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in November While December continues to dominate holiday sales, October has started to gain traction over the last three years, and November remains a core shopping month. Everybody knows a turkey and a mistletoe help to make the season bright but knowing when your consumers are most likely to shop will help deck your campaign planning halls. Jingle bell rock your way to holiday sales that shine bright with our tips to prepare for earlier shoppers:  Offer targeted promotions earlier in the shopping season Target your ads based on the shopping habits of your customers throughout the season Where consumers shop There’s no place like home for the holidays but most consumers aren’t shopping from home. Despite the rise in online shopping, brick and mortar locations continue to dominate holiday sales. October is the most popular month to take a one-horse open sleigh to a store, and consumers gather around the fire to online shop in November and December.     With most shoppers preferring to shop in-store, and e-commerce popularity growing, it’s critical to think about bridging the gap between your online and offline presence for the consumer. Are you offering multiple paths to purchase with solutions such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store)?  Go down in history like Rudolph with our tips to prepare for more in-store shopping:  Focus on in-store shopping experience technology (self-checkout, VR, QR codes, scan to pay, etc.) Offer multiple paths to purchase to connect your online and physical presence through methods such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In-Store), and ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline), etc. What consumers purchase When it comes to holiday gifts, for some, only a hippopotamus will do. Compared to pre-pandemic, shoppers are spending more at apparel stores and mass retailers. Spending at specialty retailers, warehouse clubs, and on office, electronic, and games is almost the same across holiday and non-holiday shopping months. Time for toys and time for cheer may be year-round, but are there any correlations between where consumers shop (online vs. in-store) and what they purchase? Our data found that shoppers who bought from mass retailers were more likely to shop online, while shopping for apparel and warehouse clubs was done at a physical store location.     Put this insight to the test by thinking through how you can target your consumer based on where they shop in-store and online. You just might find that hippopotamus at a brick and mortar mass retailer location!  Consumer media preferences Do you see what I see? While we are seeing a shift to digital media channel preference, consumers still engage with traditional media channels like direct mail and the traditional newspaper. Successfully connecting with your customers involves capturing their attention through the right channel. We found that our four shopping groups prefer a mix of traditional and digital media channels. What does your media channel mix look like?  Hark! The herald angels sing of ways to adapt to the change in holiday spend and media preferences:  Align your activation efforts to digital, but don't forget about traditional channels Expand your targeting and activation focus beyond in-store vs. online Download our new 2025 report For a deeper dive into our predictions and actionable insights you can use to take your holiday campaign planning home for the holidays, download our new 2025 report, in collaboration with GroundTruth. Experian data can help you refine your content and creative strategy to achieve maximum ROI for each campaign across all your channels. Download now Get in touch

Fluctuation in consumers' behaviors and preferences during the pandemic has prompted a shift in the practices and patterns that we are accustomed to. Powerful market forces are emerging as society builds a new normal, forcing marketers to rethink their strategy, activation, and measurement.   It is important for marketers to understand the forces that influence the industry, and to learn about alternative approaches that can be applied to help reach their goals.   In our recent webinar, ‘How to Adjust to the New World of Advertising,’ Experian’s Chris Feo and guest speaker Tina Moffett, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, lead an in-depth discussion of the market dynamics and developments guiding us to this new era of advertising. They talked about:  The pandemic changing consumer behavior  Emerging media channels   Data deprecation    The pandemic and increased media consumption The pandemic caused seismic shifts in consumer behaviors and business operations. Work from home became the norm, consumers made drastic changes in their routines, and businesses had to adjust to new operating models as local economies shrank and supply chains strained. As stay-at-home orders were put into effect, consumers increased their media consumption drastically as more time was spent at home in front of their devices. According to Forrester, by June 2020, 48% of US online adults subscribed to at least one streaming service, while 34% had signed up for multiple.  Forrester contends that:  Social and online video/OTT will grow fastest among other categories of ad spend   Connected TV outpaces other video advertising channels  55% of consumers plan to continue watching movies at home rather than in theatres after the pandemic    Data deprecation   The ways that marketers can personalize content and measure the effectiveness of campaigns is changing with data deprecation. Consumer preferences, regulations, and technology providers are evolving the way advertisers understand consumers, causing changes to existing identity-based marketing strategies. According to Forrester, 66% of marketers are investing in first-party data collection strategies to adapt to these market forces.    Marketers need to adjust   Demand for a new advertising approach    Changes in consumer behavior, evolving media consumption patterns, and data deprecation have marketers looking at new approaches to targeting and measurement. However, with the future uncertain in many of these areas, marketers need to test and experiment to determine which approach is best for them in particular use cases.     Shifting to a new world of experimentation   Advertisers need to start by assessing their current environment to determine where they have exposure today, which methods of identification they are using, and how those channels may be impacted by the market forces outlined earlier. From there, they need to start asking themselves how they can assess identity in the future or if there is another way to approach advertising in that specific channel.   There are specific areas where marketers can look to make investments in terms of experimentation:  Adoption of cleanrooms to support analytics and audience targeting Investment in first-party data to overcome the issue of data deprecation Shifting to a value-based, omni-channel advertising mindset to address customers’ needs Investment in data-savvy resources to manage media insights Adoption of consistent cross-platform advertising metrics and currencies to inform better planning If you missed our recent webinar ‘How to Adjust to the New World of Advertising,’ you can listen to the full discussion here.  Get in touch