How to win at peak season

Are you peak season ready? While it may not quite be time to put the shorts away and crack out the jumpers, marketers must be fine-tuning plans to capitalise on the ‘golden quarter’ of Halloween to Boxing Day. 

With PwC reporting that interest in Black Friday dropped from 61% in 2022 to 44% in 2023, how can brands ensure they get that golden glow back for this year’s peak season? 

Enter TikTok. The platform has emerged as a vital tool for brands and retailers looking to drive engagement, capture attention and power conversions. A report by Retail Economics found that TikTok users feel more connected to brands (64%) compared to other platforms (49%), while TikTok ranks top for product discovery in seven out of 10 retail categories, including fashion, beauty, food, and health and wellness. 

“TikTok is at the heart of a new type of shopping culture, blending community, commerce and entertainment to make it easier for people to discover, research, and buy new and trending products,” says Paul Mears, group vertical director, retail and e-commerce at TikTok. 

Let’s take a closer look at TikTok’s role in peak season success. 

Understanding the TikTok user

TikTok is where limitless scroll meets limitless discovery potential, driven by the platform’s ability to engage users through compelling and entertaining content. 

“TikTok has cemented itself at the epicentre of gift inspiration in recent years,” says Gavin Jewkes, EUI marketing solutions lead - retail & e-commerce at TikTok. “We're seeing, as early as October, that our community shifts into gift-spiration mode, beginning their Christmas shopping journey around Halloween. Our entertainment-filled commerce ecosystem doesn’t just shape what’s under the tree though – it influences everything from festive fashion to culinary trends.”

This is how TikTok does it: 

Unprecedented engagement: A staggering 93% of TikTok users engage in shopping-related activities when using social and entertainment platforms. This extends to peak season, with users highly engaged in holiday shopping. This means brands and retailers can use TikTok to get ahead of the curve and meet users when they're looking to start planning for the holiday gifting season.

Influence on consumer decisions: TikTok isn’t just about great content. It also influences purchasing decisions, with 35% of users turning to TikTok for gift ideas. Whether it’s viral content or an influencer’s endorsement, TikTok can drive peak season sales to an engaged audience. 

Mindful splurging: The cost-of-living crisis has ushered in mindful splurging: consumers who save and budget before peak retail seasons. TikTok users demonstrate caution, with 69% saying they save well ahead of Christmas. But, this means they can spend high, with 48% spending more than £101 on a single purchase. 

New customer acquisition: The golden quarter isn’t just about sales; it’s also about expanding customer bases and turning them into loyal shoppers. TikTok ticks the right boxes here, with Fospha reporting a 10% higher effectiveness than Google and Meta in driving new customer acquisitions. 

Quantity and quality of attention: The average user spends 95 minutes a day on TikTok, over 16 sessions. That's a whole film's worth of content right there, spread throughout an entire day. What brand would want to miss out on tapping into that throughout the golden quarter? It’s not all about quantity, though. A WARC whitepaper sets out why TikTok’s short-form videos drive high-quality attention.

Turning discoveries into purchases

How people discover products and brands has changed. Now, 55% prefer video and social platforms to traditional search platforms. TikTok is at the centre of this shift in consumer behaviour, with 58% of users saying that ads on the platform lead them to discover new products and brands. 

The best kind of discovery is one that turns into action, and TikTok users are 1.5 times more likely to buy a product they found on TikTok compared to other platforms. To amplify purchasing opportunities during peak season, TikTok offers advertising solutions at every stage of the marketing funnel. 

Top-funnel: TopView – a three-second, full-screen video shown to users when opening TikTok – immediately captures attention, with 73% of users stating that these ads are more attention-grabbing than other platforms.

Mid-funnel: In-feed ads, which automatically play on the For You page, keep users engaged and informed and can drive them towards product pages or brands’ channels. 

Bottom-funnel: Video shopping ads offer tailored product recommendations on the For You page, driving easy conversions through a seamless checkout experience. 

So, how can brands and retailers use TikTok to make this year’s peak season a success? 

According to a recent playbook from official measurement partner Fospha, the best optimised brands on TikTok adopt a full-funnel approach, spending "22%+ in awareness and consideration activity - more than 1.5X the average".

Brands should consider spending further up the funnel - especially in the run up to major shopping moments in the festive season - to lay the foundations for sustainable growth, continuously generating demand to capture later on in further lower-funnel phases. 

Fospha suggests this account nurture strategy is best for the platform, as it also favours the TikTok recommendation system. Underoutfit, a D2C shapewear brand, employed this approach on TikTok and saw an incremental $3.3M in revenue within a single month.

'Tis the peak season to be jolly? The success of this golden quarter will depend on implementing a marketing strategy that leverages the pivotal role TikTok now plays in the advertising landscape.

“As the buying power of Gen Z and Millennials increases, brands and retailers will need to continue investing in their presence, as more and more consumers embrace social and entertainment platforms for all their shopping needs,” says Mears. 

In an evolving consumer landscape, TikTok offers a powerful platform to navigate peak season challenges. Its innovative advertising solutions allow brands to capture the festive spirit as well as drive significant business outcomes this peak season. Learn more about Retail Economics' Report: The Power of Social Commerce and check out TikTok's Festive Season Guide 2024