Consumers opt for direct site search to engage with the brands they trust this holiday season

Mountain View, CA and London – Direct-to-consumer (D2C) retail is more important than ever before, according to the new Peak Holiday 2020 report from eCommerce experience specialist Bloomreach. The data reveals that direct site traffic makes up 80% of all desktop holiday commerce traffic in Europe and North America, with the remaining traffic made up of search engine traffic (15%) and advertising search traffic (5%). Social search accounts for less than 1% of all traffic, showing a clear consumer appetite for direct engagement with brands. 

Mobile continues to be the most popular channel in the UK, with 64% of purchases taking place on mobile devices. It is also clear that holiday shopping started earlier this year, with seasonal search terms making an appearance as far back as September, while pandemic-induced concerns resulted in consumers shopping earlier and spreading out their shopping over a longer period of time compared to previous years.

Brian Walker, CSO of Bloomreach, said: “There is a common fallacy in the industry that retailers need to use third-party marketplaces to succeed. While these third-party marketplaces can help getting your products discovered, our data shows that consumers have become more knowledgeable about brands and aim to engage directly with them. With such a high percentage of consumers going straight to a retailer’s website, it is vital that brands invest in their direct eCommerce strategy. A great eCommerce experience has become table stakes for every brand.”

Walker continued: “For retailers, the real priority is in ensuring that they offer an experience that is inspiring and relevant with every visit to their website, whichever device the customer is on. The brands that will succeed this year are those that offer valuable, consistent experiences that combine all their channels with shipping and fulfilment options optimized for offline pickup.”

Bloomreach powers over 25% of all US and UK eCommerce experiences and services over 500 global brands. Bloomreach’s Commerce Pulse Data Hub can be found here.

About Bloomreach

Bloomreach is the leader in commerce experience™. Its flagship product, brX, is the only digital experience platform built specifically for brands, retailers and B2B companies who want to grow their revenue online while delivering each of their customers a premium, personalized commerce experience. brX combines content management capabilities with market-leading commerce-specific, AI-driven search, merchandising and personalization in one flexible, API-first next generation platform. Bloomreach serves over 300 companies globally including Neiman Marcus, Bosch, Puma, FC Bayern Munchen and Marks & Spencer. Bloomreach has a global network of certified partners and market-leading commerce platforms. For more information, visit Bloomreach.com or follow us on Twitter @Bloomreach_tm .