Lead time crucial when buying gifts

The most diligent e-shoppers do their Christmas shopping in advance, which will allow them to possibly return the goods before Christmas, the forgetful ones pray to the courier to make the delivery in time. All, however, strongly prefer quick payments to traditional transfers. Online shopping platform Shoper shares observations about the pre-Christmas habits of Internet users.

Gifts in advance

The last month of the year is also the best. According to data from the Shoper platform, practically every day of December stores record higher sales than the average of the last six months. The exceptions are Saturdays - a day of the week when usually fewer people visit online stores.The first days of December are the moment of buying gifts for Santa Claus, and after that, almost every day the number of transactions and revenues of stores increases, to culminate in the third week of December. The best sales days for e-shops using Shoper software are December 12 and 13 - they have the highest traffic and almost twice the number of transactions and twice the revenue than the average of the last six months. - These days are a real shopping boom. Customers take into account order processing and delivery times, they also take into account increased traffic at stores and couriers. The prudent also reckon on returning goods. Two weeks is a safe timeframe for them, notes Tomasz Tybon director of marketing and sales at Dreamcommerce S.A., provider of Shoper software.

The later, the sooner

E-commerce customers are aware of the risks they run by postponing their purchases until later in the day. That's why, by a toss of the belt, they usually choose a courier, because it's theoretically the fastest form of delivery and therefore - out of a sense of security - the most popular choice during the holiday week. According to data from the Shoper platform, at the beginning of December, 43 percent of shoppers chose to have their packages delivered by courier, and 22 percent of them ordered delivery by registered mail. Among consumers shopping on December 19, already more than half (51 percent) chose a courier, and only 16 percent by registered mail.E-consumers also take into account the time it takes for payments to be posted, and for this reason, when shopping for Christmas, they usually choose fast non-cash transactions, because these guarantee instant posting of the payment on the store's account and start the order shipping process faster. Throughout December, quick payments have a definite advantage over both bank transfers and cash on delivery payments, and on December 19 these indicators look - for each payment method - 37 percent, 26 percent, and 27 percent, respectively.

Last minute

The second best time in December is the last week before Christmas. Shoper reports that this past Monday, December 19, was the best day for e-stores in terms of revenue. - This year, Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday, so we have a full business week to complete gifts. We estimate that 10 percent of shoppers delayed their purchases until the last pre-Christmas week," estimates Tomasz Tybon of Dreamcommerce.