• by Ray Schultz , November 15, 2018

Consumers are frantic during the holiday season. They will abandon a site and a purchase faster than they can “decline eggnog,” says A-Z Seasonal Rules, a study from Episerver.

Of 4,028 shoppers surveyed in the U.S. and Europe, 54% will abandon a site and/or a purchase if they can’t find what they’re looking for. In addition, 46% leave over price concerns and 17% because checkout is too long.

Also, 5% jump ship when digital content is not personalized to them, and 18% do so when they are shown irrelevant products/services.

It’s not clear whether these stats vary greatly from other times in the year. But since activity is at a peak during the holidays, abandonment probably is too.

Accuracy is another key factor in holding a shopper on a site: 13% have received inaccurate store information — i.e., on hours and locations — when making a cross-channel purchase in the last 12 months.

But the study shows that 46% will often leave over inaccurate or incomplete content, and 18% will always do so.

Episerver reports that 7% of shoppers come to a website for the first time to find store information and that 4% are willing to share their current location for a better experience.

Meanwhile, the era of purchasing by voice-assisted devices is not yet here.

Of those polled, 39% have a voice-assisted device, but only 16% will use it to offer products. And 70% have never bought with a voice-assisted device.

Email plays an important role in follow-up.

“With evidence suggesting that holiday shoppers buy as much for themselves as they do others, retailers can quickly develop guides that both complement gift giving and self-giving,” Episerver writes.

It adds: "The guides can be in the form of product pairings on a product page, a navigation option on a website that leads to product search results and/ or an email campaign with selected items."

Here are two additional suggestions for email marketers: 

• Proactively email a “forgotten password” message to customers who are having trouble accusing their account
• Offer free shipping to those who sign up for an email newsletter