It's that time again: Time to gird your loins and get prepared for the holiday book-buying season. Like we've done for the past several years (2016, 2017, 2018), we want to help you put your efforts in the right place and reach the holiday shopper, and particularly the holiday book buyer.
When does shopping start?
For Canadians in general, "[t]he peak shopping period is expected to begin in November and run through December, with 77% of respondents still anticipating having some buying to do during the final month of the year." This lines up with the research we did in 2016 about when holiday book-buying begins: Fiction purchasing had a notable increase five weeks before Christmas, while Non-Fiction started a bit earlier, seven weeks before Christmas.
What's the money like?
In 2018, "Canadian shoppers spent $50 billion in December alone." And two thirds of them "plan to spend around the same in 2019 as they did last year."
It turns out that Canadian book buyers in 2018 bought the same number of print books for almost the same amount of money as in 2017. Comparing the five weeks leading up to Christmas in 2017 vs. 2018, there was a 0% change in print unit sales and a 3% change in value, according to data taken from SalesData, the national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market.
Do sales or big shopping days drive consumers?
The short answer is yes. "Roughly four out of five Canadians plan to shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Boxing Day this year, and 51% plan to shop during all three," says strategy. So you'll want to be prepared for that holiday shopper. Consider offering promos for those shopping days.
When we surveyed Canadian independent booksellers for our report What's in Store: The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada, we found that in 2018 50% of them offered a Boxing Day promotion, 35% offered a Christmas promotion, and 25% offered a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion. So while some stores are prepared for the deal-seekers, many may be leaving money and customer opportunities on the table.
Facebook IQ recommends "creat[ing] a sense of urgency around Christmas purchasing." And a good venue to do that is in any online ads you might be running around the holidays, or on custom holiday-geared landing pages. While the following data is from the US, we imagine the trends are similar in Canada: "Mobile searches for 'Black Friday deals' have grown by over 200% in the past two years, and ... mobile searches for 'gift box' have increased by over 80% in the past two years."
Online or in person?
So, are customers coming to you online or in person? Well, it's both.
strategy tells us that "94% of Canadian shoppers will use a smartphone or tablet when holiday shopping this year," though that use isn't confined to purchases — it includes things like adding to wishlists, sourcing coupons, product research, and price comparisons. And according to Think with Google, last year, "60% of holiday shopping occasions began online" and 65% of Canadian "holiday shoppers searched online before heading to the store."
If we're looking at book buyers specifically, there's a pretty equal split between those who buy their books online and those who buy in person. Especially when we look at the last quarter of the previous couple of years.
So if they're online, where are they?
Well clearly, as we saw above, they're using search engines to browse the web for good deals and gift ideas. But Think with Google also claims that "over 90% of Canadians say YouTube helps them discover new products or brands."
Where are book buyers specifically? When we surveyed book buyers in 2018, we found that 65% were on Facebook, 47% used YouTube, 28% were on Instagram, and 26% were on Twitter. Allot your resources accordingly.
Gift giving
In 2018, we asked book buyers if they had purchased a book for someone else as a gift; 24% said they did. Of those, 36% said the gift-giving occasion was Christmas.
One thing to keep in mind when doing promotion or advertising around the holiday season is that "audiences can shift dramatically when it comes to Christmas shopping." This is true for book buyers as well. Demographics who may never buy birdwatching books are now purchasing them for their in-laws, or the die-hard self-help reader is picking up a romance book for the romantic in their life. So these types of shoppers might need more guidance finding the right book than your typical book buyer shopping for themselves.
So there you have it. Some insights and tips for reaching the holiday buyer and the holiday book buyer. Go sell to them!
Highlights from The State of Publishing in Canada 2023.