Source: kmart.com
‘Tis the season to hype those Christmas deals
November began yesterday and retailers wasted no time in touting the great savings, exclusive offers and special events they have planned for the Christmas selling season.
For some — you know who you are, Amazon and Walmart — the grand announcements projecting success seem like bold statements of fact. For others — sorry, Kmart and Sears — the plans may sound positive, but it’s hard not to read some desperation into the press announcements.
Here’s a brief overview of what these retailers are planning for the season — ho, ho, yes or no.
Amazon.com – The e-tailing giant kicked off the holiday season yesterday with the opening of its Black Friday Deals Store, which offers discounts on products across every category on the site now through Black Friday.
“Some of the most popular starting points for holiday shoppers are our Black Friday Deals Store, Amazon’s curated Home and Electronics Gift Guides, the Holiday Toy List, the newly redesigned Gift Finder, our Handmade Gift Shop, and Interesting Finds.”
Walmart – The world’s largest retailer, as covered on RetailWire yesterday, plans to focus on bringing some joy along with its low prices to stores this holiday season. The chain plans a series of three themed parties beginning this Saturday with a “Toys that Rock” event that will take place at more than 20,000 Supercenters total during the season. Santa is also planning to make 24,000 visits to Walmart’s stores between this weekend and Christmas.
Sears and Kmart – CNBC reports that everything is going on sale at the two struggling chains. The retailers are promising “first-of-their-kind” discounts that range from 10 to 50 percent off at Sears and 10 to 40 percent off at Kmart. The promotion, which kicked off yesterday, will run through Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
“We will have deals in every nook and cranny of the store,” Kelly Cook, chief marketing officer of Sears and Kmart, told CNBC.
Sears, which recently announced the return of its “Wish Book” holiday gift catalog, will also offer curbside pickup and free “cash” Shop Your Way points. Kmart is turning on Bluelight Specials to bring some added excitement to shopping in its stores.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you think retailers that have not started Christmas promotions are already behind the competitive curve for the season? Which retailers (mentioned and not mentioned in the article) do you think will come out of the Christmas season full of cheer and which will feel as though they received coal in their stockings?
Poll
BrainTrust
Art Suriano
Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company
Max Goldberg
President, Max Goldberg & Associates
It seems every year that kicking off the Christmas season starts earlier and yet customers seem to shop later and later. It’s a tough one. The retailers that have something interesting to offer that stand aside from their competition are always the ones who win. However, It matters less when they start their Christmas promotion and is more about why customers should shop them. Second to that is how they promote themselves. A retailer can advertise that their great Christmas deals won’t start until such a date, and if they use enough hype and do it by creatively piquing the shopper’s interest, many customers will wait. So it’s not just the starting date, it’s what they offer and how well they do it. And even with all of that, it still doesn’t stop all the customers who won’t respond until days before and after Christmas. We all know that’s when we’ll usually get the best deals! I like what Walmart is doing because their parties will get customers in the stores and it’s a unique idea.
As much as I dislike seeing stores and their ads break towards the holidays, that time has come and retailers who have not started their holiday efforts are behind the curve. I think this will be a huge holiday for Amazon. Bezos and company continue to lead the way in e-commerce, and with e-commerce sales projected to grow by double digits — and Amazon projected to grab more than half of those sales — the retailer is poised to have its best holiday ever. Walmart, with its growing confidence in digital, should also have a good holiday provided it can limit physical store out-of-stocks. Target should do well, but it has trouble matching the technical ability of Amazon and Walmart and is always haunted by inventory problems. This may be one of the last holiday seasons for Sears and Kmart as they struggle to stay relevant.
Everyone has come to expect that Christmas (or holiday season) push to start as soon as Halloween is over, meaning November 1. That said, its not just about promotions that start on November 1, but intentional marketing, communications and expectation setting for either immediate promotions and/or promotions to come later. Building demand through relevant messaging of value and excitement for promotions to come soon is just as important as promotions that start today. It is critical in addressing competitors starting promotions early but who could also be risking early season profits and late season sales.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I applaud those who are waiting. They may indeed be behind the competition today, but perhaps if more retailers waited, and became more strategic with their holiday promotions, we could break this cycle of “door busters” (that now begin the day after Halloween) and get to the business of personalized offers that reflect shoppers’ tastes and history.
I realize it is easy to say this when I don’t have to bear the risk of losing competitive share to other aggressive discounters (and that risk is indeed great, I know) but somehow, some way we have got to break this cycle….
It’s incredibly sad to see retailers lead with discounts rather than with interesting, valuable products that people want to buy. I’m reminded of Zyman’s observation that “in the absence of meaning, consumers always fall back on price.”
Brick and mortar retailers have struggled to deliver meaning in the past few years. And online retailers have never had a good way to communicate meaning.
I’m not ready to predict what this means for the upcoming season. But it’s a bad sign for the long term — and it’s not just the fault of retailers. Manufacturers, brands, distributors, retailers, and ecommerce are all falling into the same trap.
The only retailers who might be late in getting their holiday season started as perceived by consumers would only be giant brand names who haven’t announced anything. For smaller and specialty retailers, having waited only assures them of being more noticed when they issue there messages versus being considered noise among the giants.
That said, when you announce that EVERYTHING is on sale, it’s a bit like telling the world you were overpriced and your merchandise isn’t desirable. It just sounds desperate and is yet another example of what Sears and Kmart are doing wrong. When you can’t get people to buy your products at any price, you have to start wondering if you have the wrong products.
I expect the winners this season will be those that are carrying the most momentum into the holiday season, Amazon and Walmart for example. Those that were already struggling, will need something special to turn things around beyond just great discounts. They’ll need something unique to offer shoppers, whether around product, service, or experience to have an impact.
Hard to imagine that HUGE discounts will right the ship (or should I say sleigh) at Sears and Kmart. These retailers have lost relevancy with their core shopper and it’s unlikely that further deepening their price cuts for the holidays is a long-term recipe for success.