• by Ray Schultz , November 9, 2020

Shoppers are looking for personalized suggestions, according to 2020 Holiday Season: Navigating Shopping Behaviors In The Pandemic, a global study by McKinsey. 

Of the consumers polled worldwide, 26% will rely on personalized campaigns to research their holiday shopping. And 31% will turn to social media. 

The personalized campaigns presumably include both email and web. 

But the U.S. is below the norm in relying on personalized campaigns: Only 18% of consumers plan to do so, versus 24% in Germany and 40% in China.

Overall, 40% will depend on browsing in stores, 31% on catalogs, fliers and newspapers, 42% on brand websites, 53% on retailer websites and 18% on TV commercials. 

While 44% of holiday shoppers report from a slight to significant income reduction due to COVID-19, 82% will spend the same or more than last year on holiday deals. 

And 37% intend to spend more online than they did last year.

The big motivating factors this year are:

• Better prices/promotions — 48%
• Better value — 44%
• Shipping/delivery costs — 33%
• Better quality — 32%
• In-stock — 30%

Apart from Amazon Prime Day, which has already occurred, the big days will be: 

• Black Friday — 56%
• Cyber Monday — 39%
• Cyber Week — 26%
• Singles Day — 26%

Predictable, those whose income has been hurt by COVID-19 are most likely to look for deals.

McKinsey surveyed over 3,500 holiday shoppers in the U.S., the UK, China, Germany and France.