Retailers unwrap early shopping efforts

The three key words in retail business used to be location, location, location. Now they seem to be timing, timing, timing. And when it comes to the Christmas shopping season, sooner appears better.

Monica Trahan, owner of The Christmas Place and Periwinkle Pink Gifts in Houma, does seasonal decorating for businesses and residential customers. When it comes to Christmas it is what her 300-500 customers a year want that dictates her schedule.

“We do a lot of decorating so we have to start earlier,” Trahan said as she revealed that retailers decorate earlier each year in an effort to stay one step ahead of their competition and try to generate early sales.

Southland Mall general manager Dawn Becker confirmed that trend. “The sooner retailers have people thinking about Christmas, the more shopping they will do,” she said. “It’s a way of moving inventory earlier and earlier.”

According to a report issued by I-Newswire, Christmas purchases for 2010 are expected to top $447 billion nationally, up 2.3 percent from last year. The National Retail Federation claims that would be a significant gain following a 0.4 increase reported for 2009 from the 2008 holiday season.

The NRF noted that shoppers are more price conscious than in the past and suggests that consumers looking for a good deal justifies retailers bringing out the shiny decorations and artificial snow even as the last Halloween mask is being bought.

Those questioned revealed that when large retailers start their Christmas marketing campaigns, the smaller ones push theirs so as not to be left behind. From that point it snowballs.

A survey conducted by the NRF found that although the holiday shopping season did not officially begin until Nov. 1 – making Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, a nostalgic memory when it comes to the start of the Christmas shopping season – with many shoppers and retailers making efforts to get ahead of the game.

The NRF survey found that 37.2 percent of Americans began their Christmas shopping by Halloween. The reason being to get the best deals they can find and beat the crowds. In turn, retailers claim they are just giving the public what they want, as 40 percent of online retailers began their holiday campaigns by Halloween.

Another element that has impacted the timing of Christmas shopping season in recent years is consumers being able to buy goods over the Internet. Retailers fighting online sales want shoppers in their stores first to think about the holidays before they have an opportunity to find a good deal online from the comfort of their homes.

The NRF reports that nearly 64 percent of retail corporations expect their own online sales to grow by as much as 15 percent this year from last season. Only 46 percent of retailers anticipated strong Internet sales in 2009.

As online virtual retailing continues to grow, the NRF anticipates greater competition being felt and practiced by actual physical stores.

The absurdity of a Christmas in July sale was what marketing professionals banked on as a way to get shoppers in stores during the heat of the summer and six months away from images of Santa, decorated trees and jingle bells.

If current trends continue, some insist, it will not be long before July is marked as the official start of the holiday shopping season.

“[Consumers] are already thinking about the holiday season and shopping earlier,” Becker said of the timing element. “Ready or not here it comes.”