According to the report, the struggle to retain customers stem from distracted users due to intense competition, high costs of post-festive engagement, and insufficient customer feedback
Bengaluru: As many as 70% of retailers struggle to retain customers post-festive season, facing challenges like customer drop-off and intense competition, according to a report by customer data platform WebEngage.
The challenge of retaining customers arises from distracted users amid intense competition, high post-festive engagement costs, and a lack of sufficient customer feedback.
The report titled ‘The State of Festive Marketing Report 2024’ stems from consulting over 250 industry insiders and shoppers. It highlights how brands are leveraging trends and data-driven strategies to enhance seasonal marketing efforts.
As per the report, prices, new launches, and user experience are identified as the primary factors that make festive campaigns most appealing to consumers. 77.6% of users who consume these campaigns are millennials aged 25-34.
Around 98% of brands engage users on online channels, with nearly 45% employing omnichannel marketing to target both offline and online users.
“The festive season offers brands a unique opportunity to acquire new customers and also bring back a lot of inactive users. However, you do want to squeeze everything you can from the lifetime value of customers acquired and re-activated,” said Ankur Gattani, chief growth officer at WebEngage.
The report finds that, brands start planning their campaigns three to six months in advance; however, 54% of brands initiate their pre-festive campaigns only within 30 days leading up to the launch.
Brands from diverse sectors begin their preparations well in advance, especially e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C), which accounts for 41.2% of the brands that dabble in festive marketing.
Campaigns lasting less than seven days seem to be often more effective for multi-product platforms. This shorter window can create urgency and drive quicker purchase decisions among consumers, added the report.