By Jonathan BakerContributor: Hailey Lipiec, Social Media Manager at EGC A series of new retail promotions taking place in October may be challenging the classic holiday sales offered on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, among others. There is no doubt that the upcoming election and current economy factor into this scheduling. If sales in October prove to be successful, will the calendar of shopping days undergoing a transformation that will last? Prime examples of shopping days In a few days from today, on October 8th and 9th, Amazon will launch its annual Prime Day Sale. (Note how the official name for this shopping day is “October Prime Day,” linking month and sale dates.) Whether by coincidence or deliberately taking the lead from Amazon, other well-known retailers are capitalizing on promoting sales in October. An e-Marketer article has gone so far as to boldly title a recent study: “October is the new Black Friday.” Case in point: Walmart. Walmart’s plan Building on a successful “July Shopping Deals” event, the multinational retail chain hopes that lightning will strike twice this October. From October 8th to October 13th, “Walmart Holiday Deals” will give registered members priority access to special promotional sales. (The sale will begin at midnight of October 8th, so it will also prove who the die-hard Walmart customers are.) Online and in-store equal more sales Additionally, e-Marketer points out that this Walmart’s “October Prime Day” sales event will be extended to brick-and-mortar locations instead of being exclusively online. Ambitious? Maybe. Or there may be more to Walmart’s plan. Let’s consider “The Overton window.” The Overton window The e-Marketer article cryptically refers to “The Overton window.” This is a theory defined as: “A range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.” Although Joseph Overton, who developed this theory, was not directly connecting politics with sales, the current presidential race is motivating many retailers to promote their deals as early as possible. During election week, there tends to be a one-week lull in sales—which is one week too many in retail. Whether the new, earlier sale date will remain or are exclusive to this election year remains to be seen, but the results are dramatic. The customers have the last say… Not waiting until Black Friday As the figure below shows, exactly half of U.S.-based consumers intend to do their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. Of this group, 16 percent had already started, while another 34 percent were in the planning stage. Collectively, this was a 6 percent increase among (very) early shoppers from last year. In contrast, 29 percent of shoppers (traditionalists?) will wait for Black Friday deals. Image Credit: e-Marketer With findings like these, is it any wonder that holiday decorations are appearing in stores now? If the findings from e-Marketer are proof of anything, it’s that it is never too soon to plan marketing strategies for the holidays. Do you have any ideas in the works for promoting the goods or services of your brand or business this season? Whether you want to increase your brand’s presence through traditional or digital methods—or both—EGC can help. Get in touch with us to find out how.
