STEVENS, PA - A new Unity Marketing study of the gifting market shows that capitalizing on early gift shopping may be the best hedge against consumer uncertainty for Holiday 2010.
While Christmas in July sales have long been an obvious way to inject a marketing event into the summer, this year a number of retailers including Sears, Kmart, Toys 'R' Us, Target, QVC and Shop NBC are all doing Christmas in July promotions.
According to Gifting Report 2010: The Ultimate Guide to the Consumer Gift-Giving Market, two-thirds of all shoppers who give Christmas gifts started their shopping for Christmas 2009 before Thanksgiving. Only one-third started shopping on Black Friday or after.
"Encouraging shoppers to start holiday gift shopping early is going to be especially important this year," says Pam Danzinger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the new report. "The retail environment is really dicey this year with shoppers continuing to express uncertainty about spending."
Danziger explains that retailers can't afford to be over-confident this year. Her research on affluent consumers in the US shows that while they are holding their own spending steady, their feelings about the financial health of the country are declining. "If affluent consumers are feeling uncertain about the future, then we can be sure that middle-income shoppers are equally or more unsure. For these shoppers, it may well be more palatable to start nibbling at their holiday gift shopping early rather than waiting for closer to the holidays, when financial conditions may be worse.
"A large majority of shoppers have started their Christmas shopping long before the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season. We advise marketers to start their promotion of Christmas gifts early as some 22 percent of shoppers work on their Christmas shopping throughout the year," she says.
However, Danziger points out that starting early doesn't mean putting up Christmas trees in your store on Memorial Day. But, she says, fun promotions like "Christmas in July" and "Buy One, Stash One" events will get consumers thinking about Christmas early and shopping all year long.
For more information visit www.unitymarketingonline.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out this video from First Business on how consumers are reacting to Christmas in July promotions being held by major U.S. retailers.
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