Despite the global supply chain disruptions, Holiday shopping sales are still on the rise. Retail sector forecasts are predicting this continuing, with a strong season of post-Christmas shopping as consumers hunt discounted bargains. For businesses keen to meet this demand, and for this to continue past the New Year sales, the n companies operating in the retail space will need to adjust their logistics accordingly.
One important factor is with how to meet the high demand of consumers in a year of supply chain disruption. Businesses need to build and to have in place solid strategies to combat these logistics challenges and offer their holiday shoppers an optimal shopping experience.
Analysts at NMI recently released data exploring small businesses’ and consumers’ preferences towards tap to mobile payments – a technology solution that turns smartphones into payment acceptance devices. Key findings from the analysis, concerning how small businesses can rethink their payment offerings to successfully compete with major retailers this holiday season, included the fact that 57 percent of U.S. consumers said they are less likely to return to a business that doesn’t have their preferred payment option, and nearly three-quarters of U.S. respondents (71 percent) said the availability of their preferred payment methods is important when they leave an online review for a business.
The problem is that while 88 percent of U.S. small business owners agreed that customers are looking for more contactless payment methods when making a purchase, many still aren’t delivering, especially in the U.S. where 34 percent of smaller-sized firms do not offer contactless payments. This is counterbalanced by the fact that 76 percent of U.S. consumer respondents agreed they have preferred using contactless payments whenever possible since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
In addition, contactless credit/debit is used regularly by over a third of consumers (at 36 percent), followed by credit/debit cards with chips (at 81 percent). It is therefore unsurprising that 77 percent of cash-only U.S. small business owners said they have lost a sales opportunity in the past month because a customer did not have cash available.
The need to innovate is captured by Harvey Ma, Senior VP of Omni, Consumer & Retail Performance of North America at NielsenIQ. He tells Digital Journal about consumer behaviour.
Ma notes: “Armed with the ability to shop, review and compare holiday items in real-time, consumers will respond by being much more deliberate in who they choose to shop with, likely driven by the winning combination of price, availability and flexibility of fulfillment options.”
Ma says that Holiday related shopping events are “No longer peak selling days,’” and instead they are “key indicators of a larger and longer shopping season that was further accelerated through pandemic-driven consumer shopping behaviors.”
The landscape is challenging for retailers, as summed up by Ma: “The current state of supply-chain issues and the addition of labor shortages inevitably increase profitability challenges for all retailers. Combined with what we’re seeing with consumer panic-buying, earlier holiday shopping or prepping, and the need for ‘immediacy,’ retailers will certainly see a rise in the cost of doing business to try and meet rising consumer demand.”
This means innovation within retail is of great importance.
