Tach-It Insights: Holiday Packaging Strategy

Wow, times have changed.  Last year at this time, Christmas decorations were already starting to be put into some stores, there were hints about Black Friday deals and what stores would be open on Thanksgiving Eve for early shopping.  Amazon’s Prime Day would have passed with a lot of fanfare and advertising and some people would already be counting the days till the holiday.

Well, thank you COVID-19 for changing all of this for Holiday Season 2020.  Black Friday may not be such a big shopping day this year because, well many people are afraid to go into malls.  With social distancing and a maximum number of people allowed into stores, it will be much more inconvenient.  But the deals will be there, due to COVID-19’s effect on retail sales the bargains this year will probably be unprecedented.  The question is, how do you find and buy these deals.

Due to the virus many consumers who were not yet e-commerce shoppers were forced into shopping online.  My elderly father-in-law who is a touch and feel guy was ordering products and groceries online out of necessity but found it works and it is convenient.  No more trying to find parking at the malls during the holidays, fighting the crowds and waiting online at the stores to pay for goods.  So, this year, rather than Black Friday being the day for shopping, Cyber Monday and the following days of online shopping are going to dominate this holiday season.

Based on the growth of e-commerce over the past few years and the concerns caused by the virus, the demand for e-commerce will grow exponentially.  We are now well into Q3 and e-commerce businesses will need to make sure that they have the products, infrastructure, equipment, and labor in place to handle the large numbers of orders they are expecting and will hopefully get.  Normally retail and e-commerce companies begin preparing for the holiday shopping season in late summer and into early fall, but the new normal for shopping this year may be vastly different.  Interruptions in supply chains due to the virus may affect many aspects of business from and new consumer attitudes towards shopping are an unknown due to this unprecedented global pandemic.

Now is the time for e-commerce and online retailers to review their processes and infrastructure for the upcoming holiday season and make sure they are ready and have what they need in place.  If not, this could be an exceedingly difficult and trying holiday season for them.