5 School Holiday Marketing Tips & Online Shopping Trends

Shopping is one of the main human needs that cannot be missed. Therefore, do not be surprised if the holiday shopping trend changes along with time.

Over the past three years, shopping behavior in various parts of the world has changed due to the pandemic. Online transaction activities are becoming more common when compared to shopping directly in stores.

It’s not a surprise that the holiday shopping trend is known among marketers. Note that Indonesians spend more during Ramadan, Idul Fitri, Christmas, New Year's, and even school holidays.

So, how do you adapt to keep your business alive in 2023? Before implementing the right e-commerce SEO strategy, first get to know the right holiday shopping trend and consumer behavior.

Online Shopping Behavior Due to the Pandemic

Since the restrictions on social interaction due to the pandemic, shopping behavior in Indonesia has changed significantly.

In 2022, Indonesia recorded a 23% increase in e-commerce sales. This high growth has put Indonesia in the top 10 countries with increased e-commerce sales.

In 2023, e-commerce shopping trends are predicted to lead to positive growth, especially during certain seasons.

Ramadan, which just ended, gave a boost to the holiday shopping trend in Indonesia. The increase occurred in early March 2023, which was the beginning of the holy month.

The same thing is expected to happen during the school holiday season. Consumers tend to get ready to shop in advance to avoid running out of stock in the market.

To optimize the use of online shopping facilities for consumers, you can maximize SEO efforts for promotional content during school holidays.

Whether it's on an e-commerce page or a business website, product or service promotion activities can be optimized by using relevant keywords.

Why is this optimization needed? This is because internet users often use certain search queries to find a product or service.

For example, a search for "latest iPhone prices" will get a user to websites that specifically offer these products.

To be able to outperform the competition on the search results page (SERP), your website or e-commerce page must also be optimized with the right strategy.

By occupying the top position on the SERP, your business website will have a greater chance of getting organic traffic from clicks from interested users.

Online Shopping Trends Based on Demographics

Before implementing an effective online sales strategy during the school holidays, you need to recognize online shopping trends based on several factors, namely generation and gender.

This grouping is intended to help you determine what kind of target audience you need to prioritize in your online marketing activities.

To learn more clearly, here's an explanation of online shopping trends that are differentiated by generation and gender.

By Generation

Consumer behavior is categorized based on a generation's needs to shop and its habits.

It is commonly known that each generation will have different shopping behaviors.

This unique shopping behavior can be seen in the characteristics of consumers according to their generation. To make it easier to understand this situation, we'll use the examples of Gen Z and Millennials.

Gen Z is, of course, very familiar with trends in this digital era. Rapid technological developments have had an impact on their online shopping habits.

Around 45% of Gen Z consumers conduct price comparisons on e-commerce and other digital platforms to find the best deals.

On the other hand, Millennials are more influenced by social media when making online transactions. So it can be concluded that the marketing platform is effective for consumers from 26 to 42 years old.

Gen Z and Millennials tend to choose the same payment method, namely a debit card.

The generational difference is due to the mindset of using money in a measurable way through debit. This looks very different when compared to the previous generation, which preferred the COD (cash on delivery) method.

By Gender

Apart from generations, differences in online shopping trends can be seen by gender. Men and women tend to have different consumption habits.

The personal needs of both genders are certainly things to consider in determining marketing strategies.

Generally, women make more transactions on items related to fashion and beauty compared to men.

As for daily shopping needs such as food and drinks, consumption is relatively the same for both genders.

Broadly speaking, women complete 7% of transactions faster than men. Therefore, many marketing strategies on social media target this demographic.

However, men tend to spend more money than women on online shopping, even though they don't make frequent transactions.

Consumer behavior based on gender is an interesting matter to discuss when planning marketing strategies.

Therefore, matters relating to the promotion of products and services based on niches need to be adjusted to the target audience in order to work optimally.

5 Marketing Strategies Based on Current Holiday Shopping Trends

After recognizing online shopping trends by generation and gender, you can implement some of the latest marketing strategies that can attract consumers' attention.

We will use e-commerce as a platform reference for marketing online products during the school holiday season in 2023.

However, this does not mean that this marketing strategy negates the role of an SEO-optimized business website.

Here are some ways you might consider marketing your product for the upcoming school holidays:

1. Promotion Through Live Shopping

Currently, the consumption of video content has increased. By 2023, internet users will spend an average of 17 hours each week watching videos online.

Video is an effective medium for marketing activities. Therefore, it is not surprising that the popular holiday shopping trend on various e-commerce platforms is live shopping.

Usually, these promotional activities can be carried out by conducting live promotions with influencers who can deliver brand value to the audience.

The chosen event host or influencer must have influence in your business niche in order to reach the right audience.

2. New Product Launching

Use the allure of live shopping to launch new products. Be sure to provide clear information so that e-commerce visitors are interested in the product.

Create attractive product descriptions and optimize them using keywords so that visitors can easily find live shopping.

That way, the audience will click and see it live, so the chances of conversion increase.

3. Presentation of Interesting Video Content

Apart from live shopping, you can take advantage of your audience's habit of spending time watching videos by presenting interesting marketing content using this medium.

Content creators should plan the concept thoroughly. Be sure to create unique visual elements so that the brand identity can be recognized by potential customers.

This video can be used to create marketing and educational content to provide information that can attract the attention of internet users in general.

Marketing via video works like advertising, but with a more measurable target. The difference is, the leads generated from the activity will be of higher quality.

4. Use of AR and VR Technology

Developing technologies such as AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) is the recent online holiday shopping trend in 2023 worth implementing.

Big brands in various sectors are using this technology to attract a wider audience.

For example, Sephora's use of VR allows internet users to try products online.

AR and VR are the main attractions for consumers of fashion and cosmetic products who tend to shop online.

In this way, visitors can experience a "real" shopping experience even though they are not physically in the store.

5. Various Payment Methods

The recent holiday shopping trend you can implement is a variety of payment options.

Visitors who are interested in buying products will be able to choose the transaction mode provided by the shop owner.

Here, providing credit, debit, e-wallet, COD, and PayLater card options can be things that online businesses consider.

So, that was the discussion about picking the best holiday shopping trend that can be applied to develop product marketing strategies for the school holiday season in 2023.

Be sure to provide a description of the products offered using relevant keywords so that internet users can easily find them both on e-commerce platforms and on search results pages.

As an alternative option, you can use an organic marketing strategy with SEO services that involves measurable content production and website maintenance.

With SEO, your business website can appear in strategic positions on search results pages without relying on paid advertisements.