In this edition of the Glossy+ Research Briefing, we highlight findings from our 2023 holiday marketing and commerce report. This report examines which commerce channels are dominating brands’ 2023 holiday sales plans, brands’ key marketing strategies within those channels, and their performance predictions for the 2023 season.
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Marketers say owned physical stores increase in importance during the holiday season
Breaking news: Diptyque Paris will open a new flagship store in New York City ahead of the holidays. According to Julien Gommichon, president of the Americas for Diptyque Paris, retail accounts for 40% of Diptyque Paris sales. The U.S. is the brand’s No.1 global market, so a flagship store in the U.S. is a natural next move for Diptyque Paris. “We have the possibility to showcase all of our products, and it’s a place for experience,” said Gommichon. “We have more space to offer exclusive services and personalization, like engraving and embossing. Our experiences and services are even more enhanced and visible for clients in the flagship store.”
Research findings: Brick-and-mortar stores give companies more control over tactics like physical product displays and tactile experiences, but they also carry higher overhead costs and slower marketing pivots than owned e-commerce sites. Although digital sales channels dominate early in the holiday season, as the holidays close in physical stores see a large surge in importance for marketers.
Just over a third of marketers (34%) said they have used brand-owned physical stores thus far this year, making the channel the second lowest-ranking among those analyzed for this report. But when asked what sales channels grow more important to them during the holidays, over half of respondents (58%) agreed it grows more important.
“Stores are back with a vengeance,” Siobhan Gehin, retail expert and senior partner at management consultancy Roland Berger, said of the 2022 holiday season. “But online underperformed [during the holidays], with both pure play retailers and the e-commerce arms of many retailers delivering disappointing results.”
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