With e-commerce estimated to account for a record 30 percent of all Holiday 2020 sales, according to the Statista/Salesforce Shopping Index, footwear retailers should be prepared for a handful of key emerging trends. During a recent webinar on marketing trends, Retail Touchpoints highlighted market factors that will shape the landscape for all retailers.

Thanks in part to Amazon’s decision to delay its annual Prime Day until early October in the U.S., some holiday sales will occur earlier than usual. An estimated 10 percent of Cyber Week digital revenues are forecast to shift to October due to Prime Day, with the research firm encouraging retailers to promote their own online “mini sales” around the annual Amazon event, projected to be Oct. 5-6, some 50 days before Black Friday on Nov. 27.

Due to an anticipated rise in packages — bolstered by the pandemic and rising digital purchases — during the upcoming holiday season, “last-mile delivery services” (the courier services that bring the packages to consumer’s doors) are projected to run out of capacity. COVID-related surcharges by traditional delivery carries such as Federal Express and UPS are expected to hit $4.5 billion and impact retail margin. As many as 700 million packages may be delayed between Cyber Week and Christmas. As possible solutions, Retail Touchpoints analysts suggest retailers should consider redirecting some of their shipping capacity to crowdsourcing companies such as Uber, Lyft and Instacart or possibly create a “store associate delivery network” for customer deliveries within a specified radius of key store locations.

As e-commerce penetration rises to 30 percent, up from 10 percent in 2017 and 14 percent last year, brick-and-mortar retail will remain critically important during the season. Most crucial for these locations, the research firm said, will be BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-Up In Store) services and inventory levels on key items so individual stores can act as fulfillment centers during the holiday rush.

Retailers should also be aware that the media mix to reach holiday shoppers will continue its dramatic shift to personalization and location, with an estimated 10 to 15 percent of mobile orders generated by a social media referral.