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November 13, 2007
Sleigh bells ring. Are you listening?
By Shane Graper, Senior Affiliate Manager
CPA Empire
While my singing voice is definitely smooth and velvety, I won’t be giving you the gift of a song this holiday season. What I will do however, is tune you into some good news as we face the indecision surrounding this year’s holiday retail forecast.
If you follow the news every day as I do, there seems to be a sort of yin and yang affect regarding the reporting of this year’s holiday retail outlook. Economists and retailers alike are reporting mixed sales forecasts. According to a CNNMoney.com headline, Hasbro’s CEO tells analysts that toy sales have “felt some of the weakness” this year as consumers are spending more cautiously. With the anticipation that the economy or consumer spending could take a nosedive, companies everywhere are preparing themselves. According to The Wall Street Journal Online, Wal-Mart’s CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. stated, "Our low-cost model should in fact on a relative basis give us the advantage that we've historically had if things get difficult.".
The best news for Affiliates in regards to all of this press is that online sales are expected to rise. According to the 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, while overall consumer holiday shopping budgets will not see much growth compared to 2006, the online sector will continue to receive a larger portion of shoppers’ wallets. One-third of online shoppers (34.7%) plan to do more of their holiday shopping online than a year ago. Also according to the survey, nearly two-thirds of retailers (63.0%) will offer online-only sales this year. That number is up from 49% just two years ago.
While the holiday outlook might seem a bit dim at times for retail sales this year, your online marketing efforts can pay off for you. I leave you with this passage from Dr. Suess’s - How the Grinch Stole Christmas:
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
Posted by Tom at November 13, 2007 02:21 AM