A suc­cess­ful hol­i­day shop­ping sea­son is crit­i­cal for retail­ers. Con­sumers have whole­heart­ed­ly embraced shop­ping incen­tives, organ­ic search, mobile, and video as part of their hol­i­day shop­ping expe­ri­ences. Brands and mar­keters need to do the same. You can be vis­i­ble and per­sua­sive at these moments by under­stand­ing how con­sumers shop dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. Embrac­ing organ­ic search, and under­stand­ing the way con­sumers now use mobile and video for research, will help boost your hol­i­day sales.

The hol­i­day shop­ping sea­son is expect­ed to be quite strong in 2014, with sales fore­cast to grow 4 per­cent, accord­ing to the Inter­na­tion­al Coun­cil of Shop­ping Cen­ters. As the cru­cial hol­i­day peri­od gets ever clos­er, and con­sumers are more con­nect­ed than ever, Google has shared the lat­est in con­sumer shop­ping habits to help dig­i­tal mar­keters reach con­sumers at the moments they’re look­ing for deals – and grow sales. Hol­i­day shop­ping is no longer restrict­ed to nor­mal busi­ness hours. Google tells us that one-third of all shop­ping search­es on the search engine hap­pen between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. The data coin­cides with recent reports that indi­cate peo­ple are using their tablets and mobile devices into the late hours to research, read reviews, and eval­u­ate pur­chas­es. Google’s find­ings con­firm what many mar­keters may already have expect­ed, for it has become quite a nat­ur­al prac­tice these days for many of us to read around the prod­ucts and con­tent we are inter­est­ed in before bed. As the study apt­ly puts it “today’s shop­per spends more time than ever research­ing pur­chas­es online at all hours of the day; we’ve gone from mid­night snack­ing to mid­night shop­ping.” Google con­duct­ed their annu­al Hol­i­day Shop­per Inten­tions research in part­ner­ship with Ipsos Medi­aCT, sur­vey­ing con­sumers on their shop­ping behav­ior. Among the key find­ings: peo­ple are begin­ning their shop­ping ear­li­er in the year. They are also using online video to research pur­chas­es much more so than in pre­vi­ous years. Peo­ple are also increas­ing­ly turn­ing to smart­phones as per­son­al shop­ping assis­tants. Here are four key facts mar­keters need to know for the hol­i­day shop­ping sea­son.

1. Black Friday Is A Crucial Month-Long Push For Retailers

The data indi­cates that peo­ple are begin­ning to research the prod­ucts they are inter­est­ed in ear­li­er, with more than 50 per­cent of con­sumers sur­veyed say­ing that they would start their hol­i­day shop­ping research before Thanks­giv­ing, and 26 per­cent of shop­pers say­ing that they would start before Hal­loween. Retail­ers are respond­ing by stretch­ing Black Fri­day pro­mo­tions across Novem­ber. No longer is the event a mad one-day rush of lim­it­ed deals, but a much more strate­gic, month-long mar­ket­ing push of deals, dis­counts, and incen­tives to com­ple­ment one of the most impor­tant shop­ping months of the year.

2. More Consumers Rely On Organic Search To Research

Pur­chase jour­neys are longer and more com­plex. Shop­pers are spend­ing more time research­ing pur­chas­es, and con­sult­ing more sources before mak­ing a deci­sion. Google states that in 2010, shop­pers con­sult­ed an aver­age of five sources of infor­ma­tion before pur­chas­ing, but that has now more than dou­bled with shop­pers con­sult­ing at least 12 sources on aver­age, per pur­chase in 2013. For retail­ers it means that organ­ic search per­for­mance, being vis­i­ble and present to con­sumers, in the October/November peri­od has become a busi­ness crit­i­cal peri­od. Ensur­ing con­sumers are see­ing and appre­ci­ate offers, infor­ma­tion, how-tos, and con­tent you offer is key to achiev­ing high rev­enues.

3. YouTube Is A Regular Part Of The Research Process

Video reviews, whether it be unbox­ing videos, or prod­uct com­par­isons, are becom­ing a stan­dard part of the research process for many con­sumers. “Haul videos”, where con­sumers share their pur­chas­es of ‘hauls’ around major shop­ping events such as Black Fri­day have have been watched more than 1.1 bil­lion times on YouTube, and views for the term are 1.7 times high­er this year com­pared to last year.

4. Smartphones Are Personal Shopping Assistants

Google’s sur­vey revealed that 75 per­cents of shop­pers who own smart­phones intend to use their devices in-store this win­ter shop­ping sea­son. It marks a cru­cial change in the way con­sumers are shop­ping. While shop­pers used to essen­tial­ly do all their research and eval­u­a­tion in-store, per­haps with the help of a sales assis­tant, today’s shop­pers are now mas­sive­ly empow­ered with infor­ma­tion, reviews, price com­par­i­son apps, and avail­able dis­counts and offers with just a few taps and swipes. Retail­ers are there­fore urged to under­stand and appre­ci­ate the way con­sumers are using mobiles in-store, mak­ing infor­ma­tion fast, avail­able, and respon­sive for mobile users. Rather than imped­ing sales, the sur­vey indi­cat­ed that 46 per­cent of shop­pers who con­sult­ed a smart­phone in store end­ed up trans­act­ing in-store, an 11 per­cent increase from 2011.