81% of Retailers Planning to Encourage Customers to Shop Online Rather Than In-Store

We are at the finish line to prepare for Black Friday 2021, and retailers have been sweating bullets over whether aisle shelves would be stocker or not, and if the supply chain grinch would win the day. As recently as late August, according to research from Emarsys, 46% of global retail marketers considered canceling their in-store Black Friday 2021 sales due to the ongoing uncertainty around the pandemic, with 81% of retailers planning to encourage customers to shop online rather than in-store.

One thing we do know is true, though, is that the retailers that are currently winning out are treating their ecommerce and brick and mortar strategies as the same, rather than different experiences.

Abridged Thoughts:

Throughout the pandemic, there’s been an up spike in delivery and pickup in store or buy online and pick up in store. Which hopefully helps with a lot of traffic flow. So that safety and occupancy is not a concern during the holidays because I know that may be a constraint or an issue as well.

You’re going to see people that are looking to shop early because they are seeing those signs of inventory being constrained and they’re going to want to get that Christmas gift, make sure they can put it under the tree as soon as possible and not have any issues in delivery. The cutoffs are the week before Christmas, right?” – Nick Delyani, Director of Retail, Xovis

“We have seen retailers be less worried about supply chain issues and empty shelves as we approach black friday and some retailers have even increased their spend as we got closer. No one could go anywhere last year so ecommerce was sky high, we will see more brick and mortar this year but the convenience and supply issues will help the ecommerce numbers be pretty equal to last year or maybe even a little more.” – Nick Talbert, VP of Marketing, Quartile