CYBER November sets Bricks & Mortar Retailers up for Success at Christmas

A record 189.6 million U.S. consumers shopped from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year according to research by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That is 57% of the total USA population of 331.2million. If we exclude the population under 16 or over 74 then 83% of the US population shopped on these 5 days.

What are the implications for Australian Retailers?

In my recent article “November is the New December” I articulated how November has become the key promotional month to set up for success for the Christmas Holiday Season for both bricks and mortar, online, market places and Direct to Consumer.

Some retail executives are still describing Black Friday to Cyber Monday as primarily an e-commerce event which completely misses the point that Jack Ma articulated that the customer is the channel and the customer shops where and when they want to. If you want to drive traffic into the store, you need to be where the customers are – 189.6 million of them to be precise in the USA. Australia follows the USA in terms of trends based on our research. Rather than search retail websites, consumers tend to do their initial research 85% of the time on various marketplaces and google. For example, The Iconic is a go to marketplace for fashionista’s, consumer electronics there is no better place than google sponsored adds to get the best price – see below coffee machine example

This US Research is evidence that substantiates that November is the key month of the year in guaranteeing success for the Holiday Season. Here are some of the findings of the survey.

Of the 189.6 million customers who bought during this period

• 124 million people shopped in stores
• 142.2 million shopped on retailers’ websites
• 75.7 million shopped in-store and online
• Consumers who shopped in both channels spent an average of $366.79, spending at least 25 percent more than those who shopped in only one or the other.

Summary:

During these 5 days, customers have time not only to buy early for the Holiday Season and get a discount, they have time to do research on their Holiday Shopping List for December.

Yes, 85% of customers still go into a store to purchase however its time retail executives give due credit to these cyber events, market places, google, Facebook, Instagram, Wechat and all for doing the “heavy lifting” in driving traffic into the store.

All channels lead to the customer, for traditional retailers, this means they need to boost up capability in the Chief Marketing Role (CMO) that now drives the business via Consumer Insights>Category Management>Data Analytics>Innovation >Customer Experience>Strategy.

For our retail executive class where the CEO has traditionally driven the business many are being challenged to share the limelight with the CMO and move away from the traditional self-made entrepreneur style of management to a data/analytics driving innovation, marketing & decision-making style. This “new to retail structure” has been used in Consumer/FMCG for 50 years pioneered by the likes of Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Philips, Microsoft and all.