New York – According to a few early predictions, this holiday season could turn out to be a happy one for retailers.
Market research company Emarketer has predicted that retail sales in November and December could reach $885.7 billion, a nearly 6 percent year-over-year increase.
In his latest sales update, industry analyst Ken Gassman also said that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the fourth quarter for a few reasons: consumers have “loosened their purse strings” and the mood of the U.S. shopper is more positive than it has been in years; jewelers have enough, and the right mix of, inventory; and most economic data is positive.
But, retailers that want to enjoy the spoils of consumers spending more money will have to offer a seamless, easy omnichannel experience and use multiple layers of advertising to attract them.
According to a recent study by advertising and customer engagement platform SessionM, people were holiday shopping before the summer was even officially over.
More than one-fourth of shoppers indicated that they would start their holiday shopping by the end of September, while more than 60 percent will have started by Black Friday. Only 9 percent actually start on Black Friday, with another 6 percent beginning on Cyber Monday.
Since people are starting their shopping earlier than ever, stores need to consider a multi-tier marketing approach to appeal to the early shoppers while also catering to the traditional shoppers, SessionM said.
One example that the firm gave was when Walmart kicked off the season by launching a holiday layaway program at the end of August followed by the debut of the “Toy Week,” which shows the hottest trends and toys for the upcoming holiday season, in September.
