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Tunheim's Noelle Hawton Discusses Minnesota's Retail Landscape On Fox 9 News
So far, 2012 is off to a bad start for retail in Minnesota. Four K-Mart stores will close , Bloomingdales is leaving the Mall of America, and Forbes has lost faith in Best Buy's ability to stay in business. FOX 9 News spoke with Noelle Hawton, senior vice president of retail marketing, about the blows to business. Read more: Marketing VP Talks MN Business Busts
Consumer Product Research Channel Preferences - The Daily Numbers Podcast Episode 59
Cyber Monday Sales - The Daily Numbers Podcast Episode 46
David Erickson and Pat Lilja to discuss the relevance of Cyber Monday.
Mobile Transactions - The Daily Numbers Podcast Episode 41
Finding Local Businesses - The Daily Numbers Podcast, Episode 30
2011 Holiday Retail Trends [PODCAST]
Fundamentals Will Be Key For Retailers’ 4Q
A funny thing happened on the way to a double dip recession. News media abandoned the credit story back in August, choosing instead to focus primarily on Republican candidates, President Obama’s late summer vacation and Kim Kardashian’s wedding.
Meanwhile, the American consumer kept a watchful eye on unemployment rates and 401k balances as they shopped for back-to-school needs, handing many retailers solid same-store numbers.
So what’s in store for the all-important holiday shopping season, which has become the ultimate consumer confidence barometer? And how can companies that rely on consumer spending position themselves for success?
If there’s one thing that summer and early fall of 2011 has taught us, it’s that uncertainty has become a certainty, and news cycles are pretty successful at spooking consumers – at least until the next big story.
All this underscores the fact that retailers and other service companies need to have the fundamentals down and be nimble in their approach.
One fundamental is ecommerce. According to the US Department of Commerce, the percentage of total retail sales coming from ecommerce continues to grow -- $6.5 billion more in 2Q 2011 vs. the same quarter in 2010 for a total of 4.2 percent of all retail sales.
Given this growth, smart retailers and service organizations are tightening up their online experience with an eye toward how well it presents on mobile devices.
During last year’s holiday season, a Bizrate/Forrester survey found that 18 percent of people shopped with a mobile device and IBM found that 5.6 percent of all December retail site visits were initiated from a mobile device, with 60 percent of those being Apple.
Imagine how important the online experience will continue to be as tablets become more popular.
Something else to consider regarding the online experience: How long does it take for web pages to load? Forrester Research found that 47 percent of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, and 40 percent will wait no longer than three seconds before abandoning a site.
With so much attention on the ecommerce experience, marketers make a mistake to believe that e-mail is passé, especially for soft goods such as clothing and home furnishings. During the survey noted above, consumers were asked how they learned about CyberMonday deals (the biggest online sales promotion day of the year, which falls on the Monday following Thanksgiving), and the highest volume response was e-mail at 51 percent. But consumer outreach via email can be tricky – getting the timing and cadence right is a challenge – and can turn off consumers if not mastered.
The final piece of the upcoming seasonal sales puzzle will be consumers who feel connected to the brand. Data recently released by Motista found that 52 percent of consumers who feel emotional connections to retailers are likely to shop those retailers first when relevant needs arise, as compared to only 12 percent of consumers who are simply familiar and satisfied with a retailer. And, perhaps the most telling was that 28 percent of “connected” consumers follow a retailer’s social media outreach vs. only seven percent of merely satisfied consumers.
So how can companies that rely on consumer spending create that connection, especially in these economically jittery times? It’s a potent cocktail of smart online interactions, great brand experiences through customer service, store ambiance, product performance and relevant content delivered in a way that consumers welcome and appreciate.
Noelle Hawton is a vice president at Tunheim, where she helps retail and consumer product clients create relationships with moms and other consumers
