Connect with Holiday Shoppers of All Ages With Social Media Marketing

The use of social media during the holidays has the potential to sway plenty of purchasing decisions in the final days of the shopping season. Our 2019 holiday consumer report, “Unwrapping the Holiday Shopper,” gives insight on how to connect with holiday shoppers of all ages with social media marketing.

Not surprising, Gen Z and Millennials regularly use social media to browse and purchase holiday gifts.

But while younger shoppers tend to be the most active social gift shoppers, a Rakuten Marketing survey of more than 1,000 holiday shoppers showed that Baby Boomers are also turning to social media – particularly Pinterest — to find gift inspiration.

Shoppers are using social media in part because they need help wherever they can find it in order to find the right gifts for their friends and family. Rakuten Marketing’s holiday survey shows that 27% of holiday shoppers say they’re very open to brand/advertising suggestions when it comes to gift purchases because they say they need all the help they can get, while 59% are open to brand/advertising suggestions depending on the relevance of the ad.  Overall, 44% of consumers responded that they use social media for gift inspiration.

With all of this in mind, here’s what you should be doing to get in front of these shoppers in the final days of the holiday shopping season:

• Be active about showcasing key products on social media during the final days leading up to the holiday. Up your posting cadence so that visitors to your pages are able to see more products featured.
• Increase your social media advertising spend. Leverage Facebook retargeting campaigns to continue to stay in front of shoppers so that your products are top of mind when they are ready to buy or to create impulse purchasing opportunities.
• Create Pinterest boards that feature multiple products that go well together in order to increase upselling opportunities. Leverage Pinterest’s Product Pins offering to shorten the path to an online purchase by making it easier for a shopper to click through your Pinterest board to your website and add the product they saw on Pinterest to an online shopping cart.

For more information on consumer holiday shopping habits, check out our 2019 survey.