Dozens of heads, torsos and rows of various dismembered limbs hang on the walls of a storage room in Spaeth Design's Queens, N.Y., office. They are labeled—'Macy's, '99, Fat Man'— and belong to the ghosts of holidays past, the dozens of mannequins that have at one time or another populated the fantastical world of the famous New York City holiday window displays of retailers like Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Tiffany & Co., Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. You know, the windows people travel from all over the world to see between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
October is crunch time for Spaeth Design. It's one of the best-known design firms making up a small but critical cottage industry of decorating department store windows for the holidays.
It's a business that helps drive foot traffic (Lord & Taylor estimates that 500,000 people pass by its windows daily; Macy's clocks 15,000 people per hour during the holiday season, up from the typical 10,000 per hour) and ostensibly boosts sales—analysts say it's near impossible to evaluate, though they try.
Construction in the holiday workshop has kicked into high gear over the last few weeks, as the shop's nearly 60 employees (30 of which are full-time) labor to meet a fast-approaching deadline. Spaeth Design has been creating holiday windows for these major retailers for over 60 years, but talks with this year's main clients, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor, started late.
"We're working as we should be delivering," explains David Spaeth, owner and CEO of the shop. Spaeth runs the firm with his wife Sandra, who serves as president.
All that pressure makes sense. The holiday season rings up some 25 percent of annual sales for retailers, and window displays influence purchase on average 24 percent of the time, according to NPD research. Meanwhile, the average consumer is projected to spend roughly $805.65 this year on holiday shopping, pushing November and December sales (excluding automotive, gas and restaurant purchases) to $630.7 billion, up 3.7 percent versus last year, according to the National Retail Foundation.
Of course, the bad news for brick-and-mortar stores is that, according to the NRF, 46 percent of all holiday shopping, browsing and buying this year will be done online.
"What do the stores want? They want you in the store, they need you in the store," says Marshal Cohen, NPD's chief industry analyst. "Impulse [buying] happens in the store 45 percent of the time; impulse [buying] happens online 18 percent of the time. It's so critical for them to drive traffic to the store and then ultimately try to get you into the store, even if it means doing things the old-fashioned way. Using windows and holiday displays, and turning it into a tradition to make it have everlasting life is a critical thing for them to do."
Every year by mid-November, the retailers reveal—with ever-increasing pomp and circumstance—their holiday displays, hoping that consumers will journey to the stores to see the windows in person. (Grumpy Cat and Nick Jonas were among last year's in-store holiday celebrities.) For thousands of families, going to see the windows is something that has become a tradition and been passed down from generation to generation. "Macy's windows have become an iconic, important tourist visit," says Roya Sullivan, the chain's national window director. "As that's happened over the years, the celebration and unveiling has become more prominent."
Read entire article at Adweek.com
Source: Adweek.com
Article by Kristina Monllos
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As millions of online shoppers swipe and tap their way down their Christmas shopping lists this year, two categories are forecast to account for the lion’s share of people’s projected $83 billion in spending: electronics and gift cards.
In other words, there is an intense concentration of shopper interest online around a very narrow array of products. And Tamara Gaffney, Adobe Digital Index’s principal research analyst, says that while this is especially true during the holidays, the pattern holds all year long. Even outside of November and December, Adobe finds that 65 percent of online sales go to 1 percent of items.
These findings underscore how unevenly the impact of e-commerce has been felt throughout the retail industry. In the electronics category, where it is particularly easy to comparison shop online, consumers have been especially willing to pony up in the digital channel. An iPad is the same whether I get it from Best Buy, the Apple store or Amazon, the reasoning seems to be, and so the purchase comes down to convenience and price. But other categories, such as jewelry and home goods, so far have been less affected by the rise of online shopping, perhaps a sign that shoppers still like to touch and test out these kinds of items before they spend on them.
Gaffney said the concentration of shopping dollars around such a thin slice of products means it is especially crucial for retailers to make wise inventory decisions this holiday season.
“It’s a time of year when, in reality, product variety is not going to win,” Gaffney said. Instead, she added, retailers can best position for the season by making sure they’re always in-stock on a few key items.
Adobe’s models also shed light on the extent to which Black Friday is morphing from a one-day shopping sprint into a several days-long marathon that often doesn’t even involve a trip to the mall. The company projects that online sales on Thanksgiving Day will total $1.6 billion; Black Friday, $2.7 billion; and Cyber Monday, $3 billion. Thanksgiving Day is expected to be the fastest-growing shopping day, with an 18 percent increase in sales over last year.
If you’re a bargain hunter, the projections suggest that it’s best to get an early start on your shopping. Adobe forecasts that prices on toys will actually be lowest on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and for electronics, the Monday before Thanksgiving. Procrastinating husbands and boyfriends, take note: Jewelry prices are predicted to be lowest on Thanksgiving Day.
And while we typically think of Black Friday and Cyber Monday as being the days to nab the best deals, Adobe predicts that for the e-commerce industry overall, the biggest discounts — an average of 26 percent off — will come on Thanksgiving Day.
Source: The Washington Post
Article by Sarah Halzack, national retail reporter for The Washington Post
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Those struggling with finding the perfect gift this year should look no further than a retailer’s gift card section. According to the survey, nearly six in 10 (58.8%) consumers celebrating the holidays say they would like to receive gift cards as a gift, making this the ninth year in a row that gift cards have topped the list of most requested gift items. Close behind is clothing or clothing accessories (52.2%) and books, CDs, DVDs and video games (40.5%) — though the latter is the lowest percentage seen since NRF started asking.
Read entire article at NationalRetailFederation.com
Source: National Retail Federation
Article by Kathy Grannis Allen, NRF
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