82 Percent of All Online Holiday Sharing is via Dark Social, Research from RadiumOne Reveals

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RadiumOne, a leading data-driven marketing technology company, today released the results of its Holiday Consumer Behavior Data Report, highlighting how retailers can capitalize on online consumer behaviors during the holiday season.

The research showed that marketers have a huge opportunity to reach more potential buyers during the holiday season due to their increase in online shopping, media consumption and social sharing. In fact, the report found that connected devices play an important role in holiday research and shopping, with more than a third of gift givers researching or buying presents online. It also revealed that media consumption increases significantly during the holidays, as most consumers will spend more time online, watch more TV and go to the movies more often. Additionally, one in three consumers will share more content during the holidays than the rest of the year, with 82 percent of all online holiday sharing activity coming from dark social channels such as email, instant messaging and text messaging.

Click to tweet: 82% of all online holiday sharing is via dark social says new data from @RadiumOne: http://po.st/holiday-report

"Consumers are spending a significant portion of their time online, which has created billions of data points that help marketers identify and predict interest and intent," said Bill Lonergan, CEO at RadiumOne. "Because consumers spend an increased amount of time online during the holiday season, retailers can increase the likelihood of acquiring new customers by aligning their strategy to what consumers are doing. By engaging consumers through all channels, marketers can maximize their holiday shopping campaigns, allowing their dollars to go further."

Shopping Habits
The report dove into consumers' shopping habits during the holiday season and revealed that 38 percent of consumers will research and purchase presents online, with only 8 percent of consumers reporting that they will research and shop exclusively in-store. However, 28 percent of gift givers wait until the final month to start planning for holiday gifts, with 5 percent waiting until the final week.

The study also found that 29 percent of online shoppers will use multiple devices for shopping and research. Desktop was the most common device used (37 percent), followed by tablet (15 percent) and mobile (12 percent).

Media Consumption Habits
Findings from this report discovered almost half of consumers will spend more time online during the holiday season. Where consumers increase their time on devices the most television (59 percent) tablets (53 percent) and smartphones (53 percent).

Social Sharing Habits
The research found 72 percent of consumers share content online during the holidays. The most commonly shared content includes festive pictures (65 percent), festive videos (49 percent) and gift ideas (45 percent). The majority of sharing happens through dark social, compared to only 8 percent on Facebook, 3 percent on Twitter and 7 percent on other channels.

Not surprisingly, sharing activity on Black Friday and Cyber Monday is twice as high as the average for the rest of the holiday season.

Key Takeaways
Through its findings, RadiumOne identified three primary methods for marketers to maximize their marketing promotions during this busy time of year:

• Understand consumers' holiday shopping behaviors: Know the importance that smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops play in both researching and purchasing holiday gifts
• Increase promotions across all screens: While TV advertising is certainly effective during the holidays, marketers cannot ignore the increased media consumption on smartphones, tablets and other devices
• Deliver holiday content that consumers will want to share: Make it easy for consumers to share pictures, videos, gift ideas and other festive content

The report looked at the online activities of 1,000 consumers who celebrate the holidays. Anyone interested in the full report and methodology can contact [email protected].

About RadiumOne
RadiumOne is the only data-driven marketing company connecting the dots between brands' paid, earned, shared and owned assets to find and connect with high-value consumers. Through our ability to see the strongest signals of consumer intent and predict where consumers are on their journeys, we can build safe and effective brand-specific campaign strategies. RadiumOne delivers digital campaigns that are measured against real business outcomes. Based in San Francisco, RadiumOne has offices across the North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More on RadiumOne can be found at http://www.radiumone.com. Follow us on Twitter @RadiumOne.

Media Contacts:
Rekha Ravindra
VP of Marketing
RadiumOne
(415) 418-2343
[email protected]

Katie Halloran
SHIFT Communications
(415) 591-8459
[email protected]

SOURCE RadiumOne

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