If you’re in the ecommerce or digital marketing business, this is a big time of the year for you. But when it comes to those last-minute shoppers, you should take their money but don’t spend a lot of time trying to nurture them to become loyal customers. Here’s why. Credit: Thinkstock Retailers and digital marketers love the holiday season. It’s a time when new customers open up their wallets and spend money on frivolous things that they really can’t afford. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday to the final days leading up to Santa’s epic midnight journey, the retailer’s merry chorus is “Let sales ring.” But holiday shoppers, especially those looking for gifts at the last minute, aren’t the kinds of customers who retailers should put a lot of time and resources into courting in the future. These folks are probably buying gifts for other people, and so there’s little hope turning them into loyal customers. Last-Minute Shopper Are Worth Less to You In fact, last-minute shoppers who buy gifts between December 4 and December 23 typically spend less money and have a lower retention rate than Black Friday or Cyber Monday shoppers, according to a study by predictive marketing cloud vendor AgilOne, based on 5 million different customer profiles. [Related: 6 Top Ecommerce Platforms for Do-It-Yourself Small Businesses] The average lifetime value of a customer acquired outside of the holidays is $142, compared to Black Friday shopper’s $137 value, Cyber Monday shopper’s $128 value and the last-minute holiday shopper’s $122 value. Put another way, the last-minute Christmas shopper’s retention is 22 percent lower compared to customers acquired during the rest of the year — that is, a retailer will retain 22 percent less of these new customers than if they were acquired in any other month. Armed with this kind of insight and data-driven knowledge about customer behavior, the digital marketer can tweak programs and spend resources wisely. [Related: 11 Common Ecommerce Mistakes — and How to Fix Them ] “We’re empowering marketers to act intelligently,” says AgilOne CEO Omer Artun. “If I knew that these customers are not likely to come back at the same rate as somebody I acquired in August, I might start thinking differently about how much money I spend on these people, what offers I give them, how I treat them.” How to Build Brand Loyalty During the Holidays However, this isn’t to say that there aren’t loyal customers to be found among holiday shoppers. AgilOne cites a skincare company that set up an email marketing campaign targeting first-time Cyber Monday customers. The goal was to build brand loyalty among them. The skincare company was able to grow lifetime value of these Cyber Monday customers five percent higher than the company average, AgilOne says. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP What goes well with Viña Concha y Toro wines? Meat, fish, poultry, and SAP Viña Concha y Toro, a wine producer that distributes to more than 140 countries worldwide, paired its operation with the SAP Business Technology Platform to enhance its operation and product. By Tom Caldecott, SAP Contributor Dec 04, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by Azul How to maximize ROI by choosing the right Java partner for your organization Choosing the right Java provider is a critical decision that can have a significant impact on your organization’s success. By asking the right questions and considering the total cost of ownership, you can ensure that you choose the best Java p By Scott Sellers Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Application Management brandpost Sponsored by DataStax Ask yourself: How can genAI put your content to work? Generative AI applications can readily be built against the documents, emails, meeting transcripts, and other content that knowledge workers produce as a matter of course. By Bryan Kirschner Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO C-Suite Business IT Alignment Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe