Make Retail with combined On-line Sales REAL... Better to be "in the Black" for the WHOLE holiday season... and the year! (not just on Friday)

Will retail sales ever recover to previous levels???  Can this year’s Black Friday (the big post-Thanksgiving sales day), hoped to put retailers back in the positive “black,” be any indication of the future?  We all know last year was devastating with a 40-year low for in-store sales.  And now, with data released yesterday, Saturday, a Chicago Reuters’ article reported that “sales rose a scant 0.5 percent over last year.”

I keep thinking, do we really have the right combined-markers to predict the success of the whole holiday season any more? –People’s buying habits seem to be changing…

Even though big bargain promotions were designed to pull shoppers into stores, people seem to be sticking to their priorities and budgets (waiting for the right deal, right time, etc.).  –Can you blame them?  And, if others are like me, perhaps the idea of a mad-rush to the store for frenzied buying didn’t seem to be an appealing way to spend a holiday (last year a WalMart employee was even trampled to death).   I also think that time off work with family is at a premium value these days.  –And perhaps, also like me, many thought they’d shop on-line from their cozy homes, in between socializing, movies, sports, and enjoying their turkey leftovers!

Well, I definitely think I’m not alone…  In fact, “ON-LINE SHOPPERS SPENT 35% MORE on Black Friday over last year, with AN AVERAGE PURCHASE OF $170.19 –UP FROM $126.04,” according to Coremetrics (an on-line retail analytics company).

As reported by TheFind (www.thefind.com) shopping’s leading vertical search engine, SEARCH QUERIES INCREASED 120% over last year’s Black Friday, with a MOBILE SEARCH TRAFFIC INCREASE OF 75% WEEK OVER WEEK. Covered also in PR Newswire, Siva Kumar, CEO of TheFind said, “Shoppers are continuing to seek ways to stretch their holiday spending as far as possible and that is translating into more searches for gifts with lower price points and retailers with the best prices… Also interesting is that many shoppers seem more than willing to window shop within the physical retailers and look for a better price on their mobile device.”

Overall, many experts seem to be fairly perplexed, saying that this will be the hardest holiday season to predict. But, at least many of their expectation are becoming a little more optimistic, as they’ve increased their numbers.

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At Web Marketing Therapy (WMT), we believe that sales success takes a 360 degree view, looking at the whole picture of product, service, PR, and marketing (on and off the internet).  It requires real strategy, dealing with real people.  That even means finding a new combination of measures and numbers to match the reality of the dynamics of the consumer market — It’s all about P2P (people-to-people!).

Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:

• Business/On-line Success: MASTER MARKETING STRATEGIES DESIGNED TO INCREASE YOUR SALES!
• New Year’s Predictions – eTail is Going to Blow Up
• “INFORM & TRANSFORM” for Successful Business Awareness and Sales!
• How to Be a Sales Guru on the Web with Erik Luhrs and Lorrie Thomas

Categories: Blog, Small Business

Tags: Black Friday Predictions, Black Friday's On-Line Sales, Changing Buying Habits, Holiday Sales, On-line Sales Growth, Pamela Sherman, Siva Kumar

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