Charles Tidswell delves into the data and finds some interesting insights on consumer behavior during the festive period.

Shopping site traffic during seasonal periods increases significantly, but what more does that tell us? We did an analysis of last year’s festive sales and gathered some intelligence that can be leveraged to improve engagement and increase online sales this Christmas.

1 December Has The Lowest Abandonment Rate

It’s Christmas! Shoppers are much more conscious of shipping times as Christmas Day approaches, leading to a 5.7% drop in abandonment rates.

Why? Throughout most of the year, we’ll often take our time to research purchases, looking at gift options and price comparison. However, as Christmas approaches shoppers are keener to get things wrapped up (excuse the pun), leading to lower abandonment rates in December.

2 Abandonment Rates Increase With Order Value

Shopping carts with a value over $200 have an abandonment rate of 11% above average.

This gives retailers an opportunity. By taking the time to analyze their cart’s order value, retailers can consider displaying relevant dynamic content. An example for this could be creating a sense of urgency and promoting extensions of service such as free shipping or returns to customers falling into the higher order value groups.

3 Remarketing Email Open Rates Are Higher In December and January

Email open rates trended higher than previous months in December and continued to increase into the New Year before deflating in February.


Why? The sense of urgency to buy Christmas gifts or benefit from January sales heavily attributes to the spike. As we move to February, the festive ‘overspend’ has deteriorated, and shoppers are ‘sobering’ up; a touch less inclined to purchase.

4 Remarketing Email Open Rates Increase With Order Value

Carts with an order value of less than $60 have an open rate around 9% below the average, but the number increases for carts with an order value of $200 or more by 4.3%.

Typically the higher the order value the longer the browsing period and therefore the more committed the consumer is likely to be to the purchase (or brand). These customers are more likely to be subconsciously invested into the shopping process and are therefore that much more likely to reconnect with the brand.

5 Remarketing Email Conversions are Quicker In December

In December, the duration from the remarketing email being sent and the shopping cart being recovered is significantly less than other months.

Why is December different?

Similar to point one, as Christmas panic sets in customers are more time sensitive. When they return to their cart they are  more likely to complete their purchase to avoid potential disappointment for them and their loved ones.

Want To Find Out More?

Yep, there’s more! Charles was kind enough to record a webinar with even more of our findings around cart abandonment and remarketing at Christmas. Hit the link below to watch the webinar and get more stats than you could shake a (Christmas) tree at!