It’s summertime, so you know what that means: time to start prepping your store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
It’s no secret that these are massive days for ecommerce brands. They kick off the holiday shopping season and contribute mightily to the year’s bottom line. But year after year, the same ecommerce holiday strategies are touted in industry newsletters and LinkedIn feeds.
Every “ultimate guide to winning the holidays” is stocked with the same stuff: optimize your site, ramp up your email marketing, gird your customer support team, get on social media, throw in some AI somehow, and so on.
With seemingly every competitor honing the same tactics, it’s tougher to stand out and truly compete for customers. Plus, the desire to rise above the holiday noise on the web and in the inbox has led to some pretty dire strategies. Some brands start hyping up the holiday shopping season well before Black Friday and Cyber Monday are even a twinkle in the eye of the consumer, with some brands even sprinkling BFCM mentions in their summertime ads.
The truth is that a well-stocked inventory, user-friendly websites, and timely emails are all now table stakes for the ecommerce customer experience — especially around the holidays. But none of these tactics actually improve the gifting experience itself.
Steep discounts, handsome imagery, and personalized messaging all usher holiday shoppers toward the gifts, but not one of these tactics touches the gifting journey.
Zest is the latest ecommerce gifting platform evolving how shoppers send gifts directly on your site. Here’s how a user-friendly gifting CX helps online stores stand out and sell more this holiday season.
The Ecommerce Trends That Got Us Here, and What That Means for Customer Expectations
Looking back over just the past few years, it’s safe to say that the pandemic has altered the way we live and interact with one another. One of the most notable changes has been the way we shop. Early 2020 turned something as historically simple as “running to the store” into a logistical, and potentially dangerous, nightmare.
According to the McKinsey COVID-19 US Consumer Pulse Survey conducted in April 2020, shortly after coronavirus reached the US, trends showed that customers were scaling back their spending, largely due to the anticipation of tough times ahead. Consumers were unsure of their financial flexibility or job security, but the need for shopping and gift giving didn’t just simply disappear overnight.
With so many businesses forced to close their doors to in-person shopping and holiday crowds, shoppers turned to ecommerce in record numbers, causing the demand for online shopping platforms to rise. While the ecommerce industry had been steadily growing for well over a decade, the adoption of ecommerce in 2020 blew forecasted expectations out of the water.
During the first year of the pandemic alone, total annual ecommerce sales in U.S. retail businesses rose by approximately $244.2 billion. This 43% increase is reflected in the rise from $571.2 billion in sales in 2019 to an astounding $815.4 billion in sales in 2020. And while it may seem like that first holiday season could’ve been a weird blip and the industry should’ve dipped back to pre-pandemic numbers, ecommerce has continued to grow (albeit at a more normal pace) year after year.
The industry saw “five years of projected growth” condensed into one, which means shoppers were quick to adopt and adapt to this new norm of shopping. What’s more, the ecommerce landscape still hasn’t fully resettled.
As we continue to navigate these changes and embrace shifting consumer behaviors and preferences, companies have the opportunity to evolve and develop their own new standards founded on an outstanding customer experience.
People know that the growth spurt in online stores means there are plenty of options for buying virtually anything. The past few years have been a crash course in shopping online, and nearly every ecommerce consumer is well aware of the CX tactics mentioned before — ecommerce brands look better than ever, social media marketing is ubiquitous, and their email inboxes are packed to the gills with personalized messaging.
Customers are choosing to engage differently with the world, and how your brand responds and reciprocates is what will set your store apart. Even though summer just started, the 2025 holiday season is quickly approaching, and businesses are continuing their efforts to reinvent their ecommerce holiday strategies to best meet the needs of today's global consumers.
DTC Brands Face Competition Online and In-person
On top of more online competition than ever, ecommerce brands now have to compete with the consumer creep back to in-person shopping. While older generations have the highest preference for shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, younger generations like Gen Z are also finding their way to a physical shopping experience.
Despite being tech-savvy digital natives, Gen Z (and even millennials) have a penchant for going into a store for “in-store discounts, the ability to own items faster and location convenience. They also see in-person shopping as a source of enjoyment.” However, in-store experiences are under as much scrutiny as online experiences, and Gen Z are just as willing to flee for one over the other at the first sign of inconvenience.
Growing in-person retail is great for consumers seeking options and shopping experiences, but it means ecommerce brands need to offer a truly exceptional gifting experience to win people over to their site versus a big box store. Values have shifted to where shoppers care less about product pricing and more about the connection they have with a brand, an alignment of core values, and the experience they’re given. And when it comes to gifting, people want to shop for gifts with meaning now more than ever.
While fallbacks like gift cards are infamously flexible, they’re also notoriously impersonal. With social engagements put on hold over the past two years, consumers are now seeking the chance to make up for lost time and express their feelings for those they hold dear. A gift card code on a piece of paper doesn’t necessarily scream “I’ve been thinking of you these past few years!” as much as an intentional, tangible product does.
As we look ahead, these ecommerce trends probably aren’t going anywhere. The demand for quality customer experience and access to digital shopping platforms aren’t about to vanish into thin air. In order to remain competitive, online businesses need to reevaluate their previously crafted omnichannel marketing strategies to meet these evolving needs and earn the business of a more conscious consumer.
Zest Is the Online Gifting Experience Shoppers Have Never Seen (but Always Wanted)
If you want to sell more gifts, you need a gifting tool that will give today’s shoppers what they desire while helping your team finally understand gifting behaviors and this lucrative audience.
Zest is the online gifting platform that makes gifting from your ecommerce store a seamless, branded experience that surprises and delights both gift senders and recipients.
With Zest, ecommerce brands are better equipped to service their shoppers and empower them to take total control of their gifting experiences. Zest resonates with newfound consumer values in ways that other businesses or gifting strategies are lacking, like:
- Flexible Gifting for Any Occasion
With Zest, both the gift sender and recipient can have flexibility throughout the experience. Gifters get to pick their digital gift note design as well as when to deliver it via email.
When brands tap Zest Gift Notes, the fully integrated Shopify gift checkout extension, their shoppers can choose to send their gift ASAP, when the gift ships, or when the gift gets delivered. Recipients get to sit back and digitally unwrap a purely delightful experience.
- Last-Minute Gifting Saves the Day (and Extends Holiday Shopping)
The instant digital gift note delivery just mentioned is more than convenient —it’s a lifesaver for some! We’ve all waited a bit too long to buy a gift in time for someone. The option to deliver a thoughtful note and gift email means never having to say, “OOPS! Time got away from me. Your gift will show up sometime.” to anyone again.
Instead, stressed shoppers can just cruise through a checkout leveraging Zest for the perfectly timed present. The ability for people to buy and deliver a last-minute gift means your holiday selling season doesn’t end at the shipping cutoff date. Zest gifting empowers people to send gifts to recipients near or far on Christmas Day for the ultimate thoughtful gesture.
- Personalization for Your Brand and Gifters
Personalization is the ecommerce industry’s buzzword of the moment, but there’s a very good reason for that. Personalized touchpoints create a more memorable experience between shopper and brand, and it adds the authenticity that shoppers are looking for.
With Zest, brands can customize their digital gift note designs so that every gift send is a cohesive and complementary part of the entire customer experience. Gifters get in on the personalization game, too, as they can choose their custom gift note and write a thoughtful message that lasts.
- Post-gifting Engagement and Nurturing
While traditional ecommerce gifting strategies like gift cards or certificates have a tendency to feel more transactional than personal, Zest breaks the mold with its Klaviyo integration.
When a gifter accepts their gift, they can also opt into a brand’s marketing. This means, for the first time ever, ecommerce brands have more opportunities to stand out in the minds of gifters and their recipients with unique email campaigns, retargeting messages, and more comms all related to the gifting experience. The shot to connect with both gift sender and recipient means twice as many warm leads to nurture into loyal customers for many holiday shopping seasons to come.
Start a New Holiday Tradition with Zest
These gifting features improve the gifting customer experience tenfold, which is precisely what customers crave in their online shopping today. Not only do these features show consumer awareness, they facilitate the development of a stronger customer relationship with the gifter and the recipient.
Historically, gift recipients never had the opportunity to build a relationship with the brand, but Zest makes it possible to connect and convert beyond a single gifting moment.
This year, think outside the same old strategies and tackle a tactic that revolutionizes how people shop for gifts on your website. With an innovative, authentic, and simple gifting journey, your store will resonate with new consumer values and stand out in the crowd of online and brick-and-mortar competition.
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