The Impact of Mobile on the Holidays

And why it matters to your business

Although consumers are embracing mobile at a rapid rate, most businesses are not jumping on the bandwagon as quickly. A recent report from eCommerce Know-How actually showed that 58 percent of companies are not utilizing mobile marketing or mobile commerce. Is this number surprising to you?

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As pointed out in the above video, the biggest reasons for companies not embracing mobile are because:

1.    The investment was too much (31%)
2.    Their customers weren’t mobile (31%)
3.    No one was available to manage it (31%)
4.    It was incompatible with their ecommerce system (31%)

The companies also said that executives weren’t behind their mobile efforts (23.8%), they didn’t know how to get mobile (11.9%), it was too much work (21.9%), and they were worried about security issues (9.5%).

On the other hand, the National Retail Federation also recently issued their 2010 eHoliday pre-holiday survey in partnership with BIGresearch. This survey found that more than one-fourth of retailers said that they invested “significantly” in mobile commerce applications in order to prepare for the holiday season.

It also found that over one-quarter of Americans that have smartphones said they would use them to research or make holiday purchases this year. In addition, the survey revealed that consumers depend on mobile devices for shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Both of these surveys indicate that businesses are not keeping up with consumers, which is, unfortunately, a common problem. Social media is another area in which businesses have not kept up with consumers.

In short, mobile is impacting this year’s holiday season and the companies that do not have mobile efforts are missing out on valuable opportunities. eCommerce Know-How even found that more than 40 percent of the companies that are embracing mobile have seen a positive ROI from their efforts.

Is your business taking advantage of mobile marketing and mobile commerce this holiday season?

Back-To-School Shoppers May Be Ahead Of Schedule

NRF finds families have completed more shopping this year than last

At the University of Kentucky, today is move-in day for students who will live on campus this semester, and it’s a good bet that every business within five blocks is packed with kids and parents.  But for better or for worse, a study’s indicated that most people have completed a little more of their shopping this year compared to last.

Last year, the National Retail Federation found that the average family had completed 41.6 percent of its back-to-school shopping by now.  This year, the number’s 43.1 percent, instead.

The pessimistic way to interpret those figures is that not as much money will be spent on supplies from this moment forward.  And that’s perhaps true enough.

The good news, though, is that retailers have apparently been successful at luring shoppers into their businesses, and since we’re getting to the point that consumers might expect to find things on clearance, it’s possible retailers have been able to sell things at higher prices this way.

For his part, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement, “It’s good to see consumers responding to back-to-school sales and promotions.”

Anyway, good luck to everyone who’s getting overrun by stressed freshmen and anxious pairs of parents.

NRF Sees Solid Improvement In Retail Sales

Nice year-over-year gains recorded in April

However many other reports and statistics you’ve seen regarding the economy in April, here’s an additional set to take into consideration: the National Retail Federation has found that U.S. sales improved by a significant amount on both a month-to-month and year-over-year basis.

The NRF thinks sales increased 0.5 percent since March of this year, which isn’t bad given the kinds of decreases everyone has grown to fear.  But it also believes that an increase of 4.6 percent occurred since last April, which is quite impressive.

Rosalind Wells, the NRF’s chief economist, said in a statement as a result, “Spring shopping and seasonal weather helped boost sales last month.  Spending on discretionary items had fallen by the wayside these last few years and we are encouraged to see consumers dipping into that pot once again.”

Specifically, building material and garden equipment stores experienced the biggest increases in sales, with health and personal care companies following not too far behind.

Hopefully the data concerning May will follow a similar pattern, even if the weather has seemed a little iffy in a few parts of the country as of late.

By Doug Caverly – Tue, 03/16/2010 -

NRF expects sales to head up this year

It looks like small businesses are going to benefit from two “up” holidays in a row.  Less than a week after the National Retail Federation predicted that people will spend more on St. Patrick’s day this year than last, the organization issued another forecast suggesting that Easter will also be more profitable.

The NRF (along with BIGresearch, which actually conducted the study by interviewing about 8,300 people) has the average American on record as spending $116.59 to celebrate Easter last year.  Which is a rather impressive amount.

This year, though, the NRF believes the average consumer will spend $118.60, or roughly 1.7 percent more.  And most of this money should be spent on food, clothing, gifts, candy, flowers, decorations, and greeting cards (with those categories listed in order of most money spent to least).

Tracy Mullin, the president and CEO of the NRF, explained the increase in a statement by saying, “With signs of spring popping up everywhere, shoppers are eager to get their hands on bright, colorful Easter merchandise.  Warmer weather and special holiday promotions are the perfect mix to get people out of their homes and into stores as spring approaches.”

Then here’s one more thing to keep in mind as Easter approaches: young people, and not older folks with bigger incomes and grandkids to spoil, are supposed to be the biggest purchasers.  The NRF thinks 25-34-year-olds will shell out $136.79, while 18-24-year-olds will spend $125.85.

Phil Rist, an executive vice president at BIGresearch, said in response to these somewhat surprising findings, “Often living in another state because of college or a career, young adults feel compelled to bring candy for the little ones and even greeting cards for others when visiting for Easter.”

Hopefully these trends will lead to all small businesses having a good Easter.  Of course, small businesses that take the NRF’s specific predictions into account when prepping for the holiday may fare even better than average.

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