The holiday season is beginning shortly but for some it has already begun. However, it should be no surprise that with all of the backlogs in the supply chain industry, holiday shoppers are seeing a lot of out-of-stock warnings online this year. According to a study by Adobe Analytics and reported by Bloomberg consumers saw 2 billion out-of-stock messages last month, which increased by a third compared to the previous year. The biggest out-of-stock goods are electronic goods followed by jewelry, apparel, home and garden, and pet products.
For years retailers have been emphasizing the importance of early holiday shopping but this year especially, warning consumers of the supply chain shortages. Vivek Pandya, a Senior Digital Insights Manager at Adobe told E-Commerce Times, “They’ve (retailers) been doing this by offering early discounts, and communicating shipping considerations. By emphasizing early shopping they’ve been hoping to widen the impact of marquee sales days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, across the overall holiday season.”
It’s not just online that has been experiencing shortages of goods. According to a survey conducted by Morning Consult more than half of the shoppers who have started their holiday shopping reported that a product they wanted to purchase in a store was out of stock. Big retail stores such as Target insist that they are prepared to handle the much-anticipated holiday rush, now it’s up to the shoppers to embrace being flexible this holiday season. Which for the most part, shoppers have embraced being flexible with their holiday shopping. In a survey released last week by the NPD Group and reported by E-Commerce Times, of the consumers anticipating supply issues involving holiday shopping, 43 percent were prepared to buy alternative items, while 13 percent were willing to pay a higher price for an item if they found It, rather than wait or look for a better price.
Even with these supply chain and out-of-stock issues, spending during the 2021 holidays appears to potentially break previous records. According to E-Commerce Times, the predicted sales growth for November and December to increase between 8.5 to 10.5 percent over 2020 to between $843.4 billion to $859 billion. Contact a team member if you’d like to learn more today!
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