Surprising 2020 Holiday Shopping Season
“2020” has become shorthand for all that is unexpected, unlucky and bizarre, so it’s probably fitting that the 2020 holiday shopping season held some surprises; some good, some bad.
Holiday sales increased by 8.3%, more than double the usual 3.5% increase that has been the average for several years (source), even though many people were unemployed during much of 2020. It may be that many were making up for not being able to visit friends and relatives by upping their gift-giving game. Annual sales were also up 6.8%, which is higher than any of the past 20 years.
Of course the COVID-19 shutdowns created a “haves and have-nots” retail landscape, with some business being declared “non-essential” and required to shutdown, while others stayed open and reaped the benefits of traffic the others lost.
It is not a surprise that online retail grew tremendously last year while many people were shuttered in their homes, but even though online is hyped in the media, 80% of shopping still takes place in brick-and-mortar stores. Many retailers are less likely to compartmentalize stores vs. online as a result of the upheaval caused by shutdown orders, now utilizing hybrid methods like online ordering with in-store pickup. Increasingly, stores have to focus on not just online, but mobile, with its GPS localization capability.
So while some retailers were able to “pivot” (a 2020 buzzword for sure) and adapt during the pandemic, others were unable to sustain themselves and sadly disappeared from the scene.
