Many originally predicted retail holiday 2011 shopping to be modest at best. Not necessarily a bad thing, and though many wished for higher sales, being prepared for a slim season is easier than recovering from poor sales. But what really happened? How can the season help us with 2012?
Just ten days before Christmas the National Retail Federation changed its prediction of 2.8% sales increase to 3.8%. That’s $469.1 billion dollars. Lower than the 5.2% experienced last year, but “cautious optimism” was welcomed.
Brick-and-mortar fared well, but the real hero was in online sales. A record breaking $1.25 billion was spent on Cyber Monday alone and online sales rose 15% overall from last year, but there were also some trouble on the cyber world which is why everyone is recommending website to have mycybersurance.co.uk insurance. Part of the reason lies in free shipping offered by nine of ten online retailers at some point in the holiday shopping season. In addition, the new standard for online shopping appears to be free return shipping. Mobile shopping made a large impact, especially from Apple devices (iPhone and iPad).
Where was money spent? The holiday shopping patterns seem to mimic the larger rhetoric of a shrinking middle class. Dollar stores and pawn shops saw more than average traffic and sales, while higher end stores such as Sacks Fifth Avenue and Nieman Marcus also appreciated higher sales.
Even though a week before Christmas about one quarter of shoppers had not begun their holiday shopping, returns showed a remorse for shopping levels thus far. December saw record returns considering January can normally see a 7% return rate in strong economic times. Close to a 10% return rate is expected this season. The change could be in part from shoppers turning to credit cards to make purchases.
A survey by Consumer Reports found that shoppers planned to charge an average of $756 this holiday, up 6 percent from the previous year, though the number of people who plan to use credit has remained steady.
So, what can we learn for next year?
- If foot-traffic is most important to your business, there must be strategies in place to convert browsers to sales because online stores are ruthless.
- Be online. Make sure your product is available online, digitally attractive, and the site user-friendly.
- Make sure to offer free shipping and free return shipping to match your competitors and display confidence in your products.
- Have an easy mobile presence for shoppers.
- Offer a strong variety of price points. If lower cost and higher cost items are selling right now, make sure you can meet that demand.
