Retail 2021: Buy early and often | Business | djournal.com – Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
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Area shoppers wait in a long line outside Magnolia Soap and Bath Co., as they shop for Black Friday deals at The Mall at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo. Statistics show shoppers are picking up holiday gifts earlier in the year an in greater numbers.
Newman
Reporter
Area shoppers wait in a long line outside Magnolia Soap and Bath Co., as they shop for Black Friday deals at The Mall at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo. Statistics show shoppers are picking up holiday gifts earlier in the year an in greater numbers.
Newman
OXFORD • American consumers are doing their holiday shopping earlier in the year, checking off items on their wish lists without waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, and retailers have responded by pushing their sales earlier and earlier in the year.
According to customer relationship management platform Salesforce, spending for the full week leading up to Cyber Monday increased 4% from last year. And for all of November, Americans spent $109.8 billion online, representing a 12% increase over November 2020. Adobe Analytics said that 22 days of the month exceeded $3 billion in shopping. That’s a new milestone, according to Forbes.
Christopher Newman is an Associate Professor of Marketing and holds the P.M.B. Self and William King Self Chair of Free Enterprise at the University of Mississippi. He also serves as the school’s Marketing Doctoral Program Coordinator. His research focuses on marketing and public policy issues, primarily within the domains of consumer health, food labeling and retailing.
The Daily Journal asked Newman for his perspective on this year’s Christmas shopping season. Newman also opened a retail store with his wife in Oxford called Style Assembly in August, allowing to offer both a bird’s-eye and boots-on-the-ground view of the retail landscape this holiday season.
A. The current supply chain issues have forced retailers and shoppers alike to plan ahead more than they have in the past. Many retailers are trying to order more merchandise – and earlier – than they normally would to try to ensure they actually have products in stock. People are also shopping earlier than they have in the past in anticipation of supply shortages and long shipping times.
A. This is our first holiday season as owners of Style Assembly, but we anticipate that shoppers will buy items that are more immediately available (e.g., actually on shelves) rather than items that must be special-ordered and/or delivered due to shipping uncertainties. We similarly expect shoppers to make their purchases earlier than usual due to potential inventory shortages.
A. Social media has become a particularly effective and cost-efficient way for retailers to reach their customers. Retailers can use social media during the holidays to communicate special deals, flash sales, holiday store hours, inventory shortages and more. More generally, having a strong online presence helps ensure that a retailer will be on top of people’s minds when they’re deciding where to shop.
A. Many retailers think about social media as merely a way to advertise (or push) their products and services onto shoppers. However, many fail to use the corresponding analytics to adjust their online strategies accordingly
For example, we use analytics at Style Assembly to identify which types of promoted products were most well received (e.g., clothes vs. electronics), the posting times that got the most responses (e.g., morning vs. afternoon), and so on. This allows us to continually customize our social media communications moving forward to better serve our customers.
A. Buy early and buy often. If you’re online shopping and wait too long, your purchases may not arrive in time – or the items you want may not be available, at all. This year is not a good year to be a last-minute shopper.
dennis.seid@djournal.com
Reporter
Dennis covers business and economic development for the Daily Journal.
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