Leveraging Online Shopping, Omnichannel Service, And Personalization For A New Season Of Customer Expectations

After a challenging 2020 holiday season, retailers are preparing for another round of holiday shopping in 2021, this time with the hope that some amount of normalcy will return to consumer spending and shopping behavior.

According to one study, the COVID-19 pandemic was the reason 58% of consumers shopped online instead of in-store during the holiday season in 2020.1 As more shoppers are inoculated against COVID-19, there may be a resurgence of in-store shopping.

But most retail organizations also recognize that holiday shopping may never be the same. Operational models like curbside pickup, home delivery, and buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) are popular, with some stores considering making them at least semi-permanent. Consumers have also changed, becoming more channel-agnostic in their shopping habits than in years past.

This report explores the trends that are shaping the 2021 holiday retail season and what they mean for retailers in the coming months and beyond. It also provides suggestions for how retailers can prepare for this year’s holiday shopping season, apply forward-thinking solutions, and draw insights from the hard-earned lessons of 2020.