Holiday Blur: Retail Merchandise Accelerates

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As of this writing, the trees, menorahs, and tinsel are still in living rooms and consumers have barely finished recycling their wrapping boxes, washing dishes from their December feasts, and returning from family visits.  The ball in Times Square hasn’t dropped. And yet, retail merchandise for upcoming holidays is already on the shelves at many […]

Multi-Location Retailers React to Amazon Prime Big Deal Days

Multi-Location Retailers React to Amazon Prime Big Deal Days

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Just when you thought the holiday shopping season couldn’t start any earlier, Amazon has upped the ante. The e-commerce behemoth’s decision to hold another Prime Day-like promotion more than two months before Christmas is upending the traditional sales calendar and pushing other retailers to start offering holiday deals earlier in the season. Walmart, Best Buy, […]

Lessons from the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season

Lessons from the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season

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As 2023 gets into full gear, we should look at the key trends and factors persisting and fueling growth into the next holiday season peak, which will arrive before we know it. Retailers and brands planning for upcoming quarters should remember these lessons from the 2022 holiday e-commerce shopping season:

How Retailers Can Solve Post-Holiday Inventory Challenges

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Retailers are facing what is for many an unprecedented glut of inventory. With supply chain challenges and inflation afoot, plus astronomical rates of return, retailers need to figure out how to move what’s in stock.

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Report: High-Income Consumers Forge Ahead with Holiday Spending

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The divide between the “haves” and the “have nots” is growing. According to a new report by Havas Media Group and the CX intelligence platform DISQO, the bifurcation in holiday spending intent between lower and higher-income consumers is stark — and it’s only getting larger.

Geopath Analysis Pinpoints Optimal OOH Inventory for Last-Minute Holiday Ad Buys

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As the OOH advertising industry continues to push past the pandemic, and be featured more prominently in omnichannel budgets, OOH is positioned to be a cornerstone of top brands’ strategies.

Brands Leveraging Affiliate Channel to Move Retail Inventory

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With consumers expecting discounts this season, here’s how brands can leverage affiliate partners to effectively move inventory and make sales.

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Lowe’s Joins Brand Marketers Embracing TikTok’s Influence

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TikTok’s influence has been felt throughout 2022, but it’s about to get even harder to ignore this holiday season. 

Vibenomics Survey: Retail Shoppers Prioritizing Price Above All Else

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Tradition, loyalty, and nostalgia have long been hallmarks of holiday shopping. Until now. According to a survey by the audio OOH advertising firm Vibenomics, inflation-weary consumers are prioritizing price above all else in holiday shopping this year. Surveying more than 1,000 consumers, the new Vibenomics survey found that 59% of shoppers plan to look for […]

Black Friday YOY Retail Sales Expected to Jump

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While it’s not too late to roll out a Black Friday promotion, the clock is ticking. Experts say now is the time to experiment with discounts and deals designed to win over consumers amid rising inflation and changing consumer habits. 

Will Economic Concerns Derail Holiday Retail Sales?

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According to a new holiday shopping report by Emodo Institute, financial concerns and economic uncertainties have replaced COVID-19 as the biggest factors influencing how consumers plan to shop during the 2022 holiday season. 

Retailers Use AI to Combat Shrinking Seasonal Workforce, Surging Customer Demands

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Increases in customer service tickets are expected to come just as seasonal workforces are hitting all-time lows. According to Puneet Mehta, founder and CEO of the AI platform Netomi, about 25% fewer agents are working in seasonal customer service roles now than before the pandemic. Customer service accounts for a lot of the seasonal roles retailers have traditionally hired for, and now retailers are looking at leveraging technology to fill that labor gap.

New Year, Same Challenge: Content is the Key to Another Digital Holiday Season for Retailers

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With the Delta variant bringing a second unwelcome wave of apprehension and disruption, the vision we all looked forward to a year ago — the return to a normal holiday season — is dissipating before our eyes. Online shopping will be the main go-to again this time around, with businesses and consumers facing many familiar, and a few unfamiliar, factors this year.

GoDaddy’s Marketing Planner Helps SMBs Prepare for Holidays

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The holidays are still months away, but GoDaddy is betting that more small and mid-size businesses will be taking a proactive approach and starting their seasonal marketing campaigns earlier this year than in the past. The company recently launched a new marketing planner designed to make it easier for businesses to keep track of holidays and promotional opportunities.

Retail Embraces Omnichannel for the Holidays

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Rather than focusing on one platform or tool, retail brands are embracing everything necessary to engage with customers across multiple touchpoints. That could have a major impact on the way shoppers interact with their favorite brands in the coming weeks, and depending on the results, it could lead to changes in the way retail marketing is handled in 2021.

Consumers’ Number-One Holiday Shopping Incentive

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Don’t think about the price tag. Think about how you’re going to deliver the merchandise.

That is what is on consumers’ minds as they think about upcoming holiday shopping, according to a survey of 17,000 US consumers by shopping rewards app company Shopkick. Last year, consumers’ number-one incentive was low prices. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, 54% said their number-one priority is free shipping.

Retail Prepares for a Covid-Inflected Holiday Season

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The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the shift from brick-and-mortar commerce to digital transactions. It has also forced brick-and-mortars resisting the hybridization of their own businesses to adopt digital methods, turning restaurants and apparel stores alike into both brick-and-mortar establishments and online sellers.

Against that backdrop, retail’s biggest quarter will present novel challenges this year. Retailers will need to optimize for online transactions and contend with fragmented national and global landscapes where it may be safe to go to stores in New York but not in Los Angeles.

The Art of Making a Retail Holiday

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From Black Friday and Cyber Monday to back-to-school sales, retail holidays may be arbitrary, but they have become a core component of successful sales and marketing strategies. As a result of their success, these holidays are becoming expected, fixtures of the retail industry embedded in its collective psyche. Companies must innovate to keep them fresh. Brands need to monitor competitors to see what works and what doesn’t work and tweak their strategies appropriately. 

Data on successful “holiday” campaigns reveal how to make the most of holidays, whether long-established or freshly innovated.

Last-Minute Shoppers Help Small Retailers Compete with Amazon for Holiday Sales

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During the holiday shopping season, it’s Amazon’s world — or is it?

Outside the digital sphere, brick-and-mortar holiday sales at big-box shops like Walmart and Best Buy continue to be buoyed by bullish shoppers willing to hit the streets in search of timely deals during consumer-focused quasi-holidays like Black Friday. As a result, shoppers are spending more during the holidays than ever before. 

And then there’s the independent, local retailer. How is a small shop supposed to compete with the ease of mobile e-commerce or the allure of big-box doorbuster deals? Turns out, they have an ace in the hole: last-minute shoppers. 

Technology Planning: What Retailers Should Do Now to Prep for the Holiday Rush

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Retailers will need to think differently when it comes to technology planning. With the holiday season looming, now is the best moment to develop a long-term technology strategy geared toward capturing more holiday sales in addition to driving revenue growth all year long.

Understanding a few key areas can help get the planning process started. This includes: exceeding consumers’ holiday shopping expectations, making holiday shopping more convenient, and enabling a holistic holiday shopping journey.