I am a busy college student. When I want to see my family, I have to pencil them in to my schedule…. I know, it’s quite sad. But, this wonderful college career is over soon and I am relatively certain it will all be worth it. Because of this lack of time, I have found myself shopping online more frequently over the past couple years. Today, while I was reading an article on The National Retail Foundation Web site, I came across a study about the 2007 holiday shopping predictions. The statistics are staggering and interesting for any public relations practitioner in the retail business. Here are some key points from the article
- 44.3 % of adults plan to shop online during the 2007 holiday season
- 53.8 % of adults would like to receive a gift card as a gift
- the average American will spend almost $500 on gifts for family members
- the average adult will spend approximately $100 on gifts for themselves in in the holiday season
The survey also noted that most consumers begin holiday shopping in November. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am usually the one running around the mall like a mad woman on Christmas Eve trying to buy presents for my ridiculously large family. ( 5 siblings, parents, step-parents, boyfriend, boyfriend’s entire family, dog, cats……. you get the picture ) Although, last year I was proud of myself. I decided to brave the weather ( 38 degrees) and venture out on the infamous ‘Black Friday.’ As I stood in line at Target, I realized how much planning had gone into making the whole Black Friday event possible. Before I entered the store, I went to www.target.com and viewed the entire ad. The ad was set up like a regular newspaper ad– it even had little animations on the bottom of the pages that made it appear like that page flipped when you touched it. I found my gifts, wrote down the desciption and price, and was on my way.
Bec
ause of the large increase in online shopping, marketing professionals have coined the term ‘Cyber Monday.’ This refers to the Monday following Black Friday. Public relations practitioners in the retail industry need to pay close attention to the online shopping habits in the 2007 holiday season.
Another report indicated that social media is the top way consumers ages 18-24 receive information about products. This age group reads blog posts, contributes to product reviews, researches through Wikipedia and YouTube and views brand profiles on social networks. As a up and coming PR professional, I realize the company must stand out in these online areas. No more boring Web sites. Better start designing a Facebook page. Make sure your ads are visible online. Read Reviews. READ BLOGS. The best way to understand what your public is thinking is to interact with them on these social networks and blogs. Today, transparency is key for companies and I believe it’s going to become something that consumers expect from CEOs and executives in the future.
Just to get an idea of what company’s PR departments really get the picture…. check out these sites:
Nordstrom — Notice the Live Chat for customers, online catalogs and pages designed for each specific target market ( check out the juniors department with music, quizzes and styling tips)
Target— Offers ways to keep wish lists online for family members to view. Online ads, return an item using the web, and gift and wedding registries to print off and scan at register.
Nike—Very cool. You log into a certain region and the site is tailored to the specific region’s taste. Try it. Log in as American, then log in from Latin America. They offer online catalogs, and they feature a shoe that tracks each step you take while running. An interactive tool allows the user to see the statistics of the run including length, time and average speed.
Dell— They really have it figured out. Blogs, podcasts, Second Life, a Wiki, RSS… the list goes on and on. Check it out for yourself in Dell’s ‘Ideas, Blogs, Forums, Videos’ section.
I found this post intersting mainly i think because it effects me directly. I myself have braved the black friday shopping crowd, however over the last 3 years I saw the day from a whole other prespective. I work at Old Navy in my hometown and I am now there as Holiday help. It is easy to believe that more people are doing their shopping online the last two years were much slower then 2005 when I first started working there. This year was indeed the worst though. Old Navy even gave out mp3 players with a twenty dollar purchases in hope I believe of drawing in a larger crowd. This worked well for the first hours, but then the store at times was quite empty. Another thing I found intresting is how you talked about how you thought so much time goes into the PR for a single day and I completly agree. Old Navy not only gsve those Mp3 players out to those who spent tweny dollars, but they advertised it on TV as well as sent out promotional flyers with the sales and the Mp3 players shown. The last thing they did I find very intersting since I just really learned about it today while doing this was they preloaded the Mp3 players. I myself did not get a chance to hear what was on them, however if they followed the pattern they do with the store music I would be willing to bet that they put at least one line in there that said something to do with the company. This just was a great way for me to think of podcasting and how you mentioned before it really is crazy to think about how much PR goes into that one day of shopping.
Being
Being PR majors, we tend to see the other side of the retail industry differently than most consumers.
These updates to the company’s websites are directly related to what the consumer wants — and the companies are doing a great job at listening. But one has to wonder how drastically the retail business will change in the near future — a dilemma similar to print and electronic media.
WebProNews reported in an article (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/09/24/online-shopping-grows-30)
that the amount of online shoppers has increased 30% in the past two years. They also reported that 39% of adults surveyed make an online purchase at least monthly.
Now, tie in the data above and combine it with Black Friday, and you have a whole new playing field for PR professionals and advertisers alike.
Like Jena above, I also work in a retail store (Best Buy) and have suffered the wrath of Black Friday shoppers. This year, however was much different than the past. There were far fewer shoppers in line at 3 a.m. and instead of the lines wrapping around our building 3 or 4 times, they were considerably shorter.
Initially, as store employees we thought it was because competitors were advertising better deals and prices, but our general manager later told us it was because we had nearly triple the amount of clicks (sales on bestbuy.com) than we did in the store. Meaning, we didn’t lose our business, we just gained it in a different form.
With all the recent buzz about internet shopping, retailers have taken to their websites in an effort to sup them up for the customers. And this year, not only could customers browse the Black Friday ads and door busters before they were released in print, some retailers actually had their own Black Friday deals online before Friday.
Best Buy’s website allowed customers to take advantage of the Black Friday deals at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday. Walmart also had a similar promotion.
So, the question is, what’s next? With retailers attempting to bring more and more business in online, will they eventually end up receiving less business in stores? And if so, how is the shopping experience as a whole going to change if customers decide there is a lesser need of a tangible store? We may not know the answers now, but in the future, without a doubt, situations will arise for PR professionals to lend their advice.
huh?
Black Friday Ads…
\’The Friday after Thanksgiving is known for heavy spending in retail stores, but it\’s clear that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to make their holiday purchases,\’ said comScore……
i love shopping online, and i have purchase 19 item in last year worth 11000 dollars, from the internet. i usually dont like ebay instead i use iwantwebsite.com
eh… thanks ))