Scents 12 Spray October 2015 of the AvA CAridAd Editorial Director According to the Winter Holiday Shopping U.S. report from market research firm Mintel, Christmas clearly dominates when it comes to winter holiday spending with a high 82% of respondents reporting spending related to this holiday, as compared to just 63% for Thanksgiving and 47% for New Year’s. Other holidays, including Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, lagged significantly behind. Across all three of the major holidays, families dominate in spending, with those in one- and two-person households significantly lagging, even when it comes to New Year’s. Meanwhile, more affluent respondents actually are less likely to buy various products related to the holidays, possibly due to the presence of empty nesters in this category, said Mintel. At 13%, holiday decoration purchases for New Year’s lag well behind those for Christmas and even Thanksgiving. Since Christmas comes so shortly before New Year’s, there can be little space on store shelves for promoting such items, and little enthusiasm among consumers whose homes are already filled with Christmas décor. While Thanksgiving seems unlikely to emerge as a major gift-giving holiday, there remains potential to expand purchases of holiday decorations and home scents. Gifts for all As would be expected, household size is an incredibly strong driver of Christmas purchases, particularly when it comes to gifts. Households with four or more people are more likely to buy in almost every gift category, while single-person households fall behind in purchases not only of gifts, but also food, alcohol and decorations. As a result of the huge focus on family seen in many holiday marketing campaigns, it’s not surprising that couples without children and those who live alone may feel left out and find it easy to ignore Fragrances for home and body dominate holiday launches Season According the latest LoyaltyOne research, 50.9% of U.S. shoppers say that returning gifts adds to their post-holiday stress, and 39% say they have re-gifted a present just to avoid the hassle of the retail return process. The results of a nationwide survey LoyaltyOne conducted at the height of the post-holiday shopping season suggest the gift return experience is both a high-risk and high-reward retail touch point. High-risk: More than 60% of consumers say they would stop shopping at a retailer after a poor gift return experience. High-reward: More than 79% say a positive experience returning a gift to a store that they rarely visit would motivate them to shop more often at Gift returns cause shoppers stress that store and 83.3% say they would share information about a positive gift return experience with friends and family. An even greater number of shoppers, 86.9%, say they would share a negative return experience with friends and family, providing yet additional evidence that the customer relationship is on the line. “The concept of high-risk touch points continues to gain the interest of retailers, as customers are increasingly fickle and their loyalty is divided,” said LoyaltyOne Consulting Managing Partner Dennis Armbruster. “It’s no longer just about attracting shoppers to the store, it’s about cultivating their loyalty through the entire sales and return process.”
Spray October2015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above