Inside Outdoor Fall 2017

do more than half their shopping on- line, while NPD Groups surveys found that U.S. consumers anticipate doing nearly 40 percent of their 2017 holiday shopping online, up from one-third just two years ago. And according to NPD, online shoppers also are likely to spend more per person in 2017. In turn, Re- tailMeNot reports that 58 percent of retailers plan to make online shoppers their main target in 2017, while 42 per- cent will be focusing more heavily on in-store shoppers. Despite the predictions – and the death knells being sounded for brick and mortar – physical and hybrid re- tailers need to keep one data point in mind: nearly 90 percent of dollars spent between November and January still occurs in a physical store. That spend- ing may happen later in the holiday sea- son nowadays, like after ship-by dates, but it still happens. This year will be no different, par- ticularly with a “super Saturday” coming on December 23, for all those procras- tinators. Hitting marketing hard lead- ing up to this weekend, as well as the December 16-17 weekend, could prove the difference maker for an important quarter of sales. And with four full weekends in De- cember before Christmas, perhaps it’s not a surprise that four in 10 retailers are setting aside more than 25 percent of their overall holiday marketing bud- gets for last-minute promotional activ- ity. When developing those last-minute promotions, however, beware of over- discounting driven by fears of excess remaining inventory, warns Jared Wi- esel, Partner at Revenue Analytics. “Many retailers leave money on the table when it comes to last-minute shop- pers,” said Wiesel. “These shoppers are often the least price sensitive, yet many retailers continue to offer aggressive dis- counts late in the holiday season.” Katherine Black, principal analysts at KPMG, meanwhile, recommends keeping discounts more targeted rather than broadly based or store- wide. Retailers, said Black, “must be conscious of the fact that it’s harder to get the associated sale with the deal. Frankly, a lot of the big blockbuster deals have gotten stale. “I would advise clients right now to look at the customers that are wish list- ing with them,” she continued. “How are consumers browsing and researching online? Watch that so that [retailers are] really using the discount or the cou- pon as a way to close a sale that’s not already set to happen, instead of the traditional means of a big ad meant to drive lots of traffic.” Retailers must ring the right bells. So how do retailers attract traffic to their storefronts? It may not be as true with younger consumers, but email is still the way most consumers prefer to be engaged by retailers during the holi- days, several surveys suggest. In turn, 43 percent of B2C marketers surveyed by Accenture say email campaigns are the first priority for holiday marketing, beating out all other channels including social, search and retargeting. In terms of the messaging, stud- ies and surveys also suggest that two forms of message will resonate with holiday-harried consumers. For starters, shoppers say they are stressed and time-crunched during the holidays, so anything that emphasizes the ease and convenience of a shopping experience should illicit interest. This would seem to play to the inherent advantages of shopping at specialty stores, which can highlight their more targeted assort- ments, smaller footprints, helpful staffs, closer parking, and often the avoidance of major malls and strip centers. In fact, more than half of surveyed respondents told PwC they will shop at smaller specialty or independent retailers this holiday. Otherwise, any convenience capabilities, such as gift-wrapping, ex- tended hours, special “member-only” after-hours, valet parking or parcel check, should be highlighted. Along these same lines, retailers would be wise to resist relying on dis- counts and instead provide specific gift ideas. Quite simply, while today’s con- sumer are adept at finding good deals, what they’d like help with is inspiration, say Accenture analysts. Nearly two- thirds of respondents told the research firm they wish retailers would do more to give them ideas for gifts. This could include online articles and videos fea- turing the best gifts under $50, best gifts for teens, or the best gifts for the hiker, climber or paddler in your life.   With that in mind, take a look at the following outdoorsy gift suggestions for holiday 2017. U.S. Holiday Retail Sales by Segment ($B) 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 E-commerce $61.33 $70.15 $80.25 $91.76 $106.97 % total 7.6% 8.3% 9.3% 10.2% 11.5% Non-commerce $747.31 $772.22 $781.49 $809.13 $822.18 % total 92.4% 91.7% 90.7% 89.8% 88.5% Source: eMarketer US Internet Users Who Plan to Shop In-Store on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Sept 2017 % of respondents Source: Market Track Reasons for selecting in-store over online: By household income % of respondents Source: Deloitte 54% 59% 62% 51% 50% 49% 44% 44% 45% Thanksgiving Black Friday Cyber Monday Ability to interact with the product Avoid shipping cost Gives me gift ideas and inspiration <$50K <$50K-$99K <$100K+ Hours employers plan to give vs. hours seasonal workers want 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41+ HOURS PER WEEK 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Employers Seasonal workers 30.1% 39.8% 26.8% Inside Outdoor | FALL 2017 42