Beyond Turkey: Retailers and Consumers Face Choices

It's November. And that means consumers and retailers have some interesting choices to make.

Walmart is one of a handful of stores that will be open all day on Thanksgiving Day. Other retailers, like Best Buy and Macy's, will open later on Thanksgiving to attract shoppers who want to start their gift buying after enjoying a holiday meal.

Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) is, of course, traditionally a big shopping day for many consumers who seek bargains. But outdoor retailer REI is promoting an alternative for the third consecutive year. As shown above, it uses the hashtag #OptOutside to encourage consumers (and employees) to enjoy nature rather than crowd into stores and plunk down money. This unusual campaign has differentiated REI from every other retailer and endeared it to brand fans and employees alike.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is now known as Small Business Saturday. Created by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday is a day for encouraging consumers to choose to support small and local businesses. There are nearly 3.5 million Facebook likes for Small Business Saturday's page, featuring #ShopSmall as the hashtag.

Then comes CyberMonday, a day when online retailers promote deals to attract buyers galore. This has become a major tradition as online buying grows in popularity. Especially given the big push into ecommerce by Walmart and other store-based retailers, CyberMonday will continue to be an important day for dueling discounts (and the consumer wins).

Finally, Giving Tuesday is the youngest of these "holidays," a day that encourages charitable donations, volunteerism, and support of good causes. Founded in 2012, #GivingTuesday is a good reminder of the many ways consumers and groups can make a difference by giving of their time, talents, and money.

Shoppers Shopped on Cyber Weekend

From Slice Intelligence, https://intelligence.slice.com/avid-online-shoppers-help-cyber-weekend-grow-14-8-percent-and-keep-amazon-on-top/

Mobile was all-important as consumers used smartphones and tablets to browse and, often, buy during the shopping frenzy that takes over the long weekend after Thanksgiving. Consumer behavior has evolved, with a growing number of shoppers at least browsing online retail sites to check for bargains--and many buying online rather than in a store.

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, shoppers shopped. And shopped. Consumers in many nations clicked or swiped to buy over the weekend--not just in US markets.

Amazon, once again, was a major destination on Cyber Weekend, accounting for an estimated 30% of cyber-shopping. An incredible statistic, to be sure. For an inside look at an Amazon fulfillment center during the holiday rush, click here.

On Cyber Weekend, Best Buy reportedly did very well as an online shopping destination, as did the cyber-shops of Target, Walmart, and Macy's (as Slice Intelligence's chart above shows). Not surprisingly, Cyber Monday was a top trending topic in social media that day.

Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday . . .

The week of and after Thanksgiving is filled with "holidays" designed to shape attitudes and behavior with the holidays in mind.

• Black Friday. In the UK, Amazon introduced Black Friday in 2010. This year Amazon UK had its busiest day ever on Black Friday, far surpassing expectations. In the US, however, the number of store shoppers was either modestly higher or modestly lower (depending on the source you cite), partly because people clicked to buy. Barnes & Noble fought back against the online buying trend by having big-selling authors sign books for sale in its bricks-and-mortar stores.
• Small Business Saturday. This was a big day for small and local businesses, by all accounts. Local bookstores took part, and many small business promoted local products and artisans.
• Cyber Monday is today, a day for shopping online with an eye toward big bargains. Electronics may have been the hot products on Black Friday--it's not just electronics today. So many e-tailers have been promoting "Black Friday week" and "Cyber Monday week" that the deals are stretching over days, or just lasting for an hour or two.
• Giving Tuesday (logo above right) is a two-year-old "holiday" that's devoted to charitable donations (money, time, goods). National and local charities are hooking their promotions to this day and asking donors to use social media to encourage participation. Last year, giving spiked on Giving Tuesday. Hopefully that pattern will repeat this year.

Consumer behavior is definitely changing as a result of these "holidays:" Consumers are buzzing about them, acting on them, and voting with their wallets. Look at the buzz about Thanksgiving-day store closings, for instance: Many shoppers cheered when stores promoted NO shopping hours on Thanksgiving.

Black Friday, 3 Weeks Early

Amazon has decided to push Black Friday marketing up to the first Friday in November, a full 3 weeks earlier than usual for this "traditional" first and biggest Christmas-Hanukkah shopping day of the season.

Above, Amazon's home page, as it looked on November 3, with a link to "Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week." Each countdown day comes with its own deals, of course.

Walmart is promoting its own preholiday, online specials here, calling them "our lowest prices of the year." And the store is also reminding those who love to shop online not to forget Cyber Monday!

Dell has its Black Friday specials ready for shoppers right now. And if you want the inside info on Target's Cyber Monday specials, sign up for its e-mail news.

'Tis the season to comparison shop.

The View from Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Here it is on Black Friday--the day after Thanksgiving, which traditionally signals the start of the holiday shopping season--and predictions for online buying are optimistic, based on sales to date and on today's buying patterns.

ComScore says November online sales are already higher than last year and it sees a lot of ka-ching for web retailers. PayPal and eBay are seeing strong demand so far. Amazon (above) is ready for a big weekend and holiday season worldwide.

Of course mobile marketing has been in full swing, with special offers, coupons, and contests galore. But tracking via cell phone is also a concern on Black Friday--"Black SpyDay"--and the easy way to avoid being tracked is to turn the mobile off in malls and stores.

Will all this online buying put a dent into store sales? For gadgets, the answer is likely to be yes, mainly because it's so easy to comparison shop and click to buy without crowds and 4 a.m. lines outside for door-buster specials in the mall. Meanwhile, small businesses are hoping that Small Business Saturday draws big interest. And Cyber Monday is still days away. Stay tuned.

CyberMonday Morning

It's the starting line for CyberMonday. During the weekend I heard lots of discussion about cyber bargains and some doubts that employees worried about layoffs and such would actually be surfing for deals at their desks (presumably while the bosses surf for deals at their desks). Maybe before or after work, they'll mouse around the merchant sites...

The buzz indicates that Shop.org's CyberMonday blitz has been effective in spreading the word. Even if shoppers don't click through the official CyberMonday site, they're planning a bit of online bargain-hunting, achieving the promotion's goal.

In the UK, this is Mega Monday, also expected to be a very big day for online shopping. There's another reason for UK shoppers to click and buy today: Trying to get ahead of a possible postal strike.

Amazon UK expects its busiest Christmas season ever. Visa projects that UK shoppers will make 2.4 million online buys today with a Visa debit or credit card. Will CyberMonday and Mega Monday live up to expectations? Definitely--there's no question that buyers are increasingly comparing prices, researching products, and buying online (not just on computers but also on their now ubiquitous smartphones).