Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
In the news and on social media, Christmas shopping has already become a hot topic. When it comes to this, people fall into two categories: either they are early-starters and love it, or they are last-minute buyers who hate Christmas starting early. Personally, I’m a big advocate of starting early. It’s been proven that most economical way to Christmas shop is to start early, giving you time to really hunt bargains. It also spreads out the financial outlay, making expenses more manageable.
Since people are already discussing Christmas shopping, I thought it would be fun to throw out a few predictions. Of course, we won’t know how accurate I am until the season plays out, but here are some things I think we’ll see – and that we should all be ready to take advantage of:
#1: Even earlier start – Over the past several years, the fierce competition both between, and with, online sellers has increased. Following this trend, I expect brick and mortar stores to start their deals sooner than ever this year, in the effort to get shoppers in-store, rather than online. The same goes for online retailers. I think we will see deals and discounts earlier than ever in an attempt to secure shoppers. The consumer is really the one who reaps the benefit of this battle. Specials starting earlier means more opportunities to land amazing deals. I predict we could see Black Friday-like specials by the first or second week of November, and possibly even as early as the end of October.
#2: Multi-use coupons and codes – I think we’ll see an abundance of multi-use online coupon and promotional codes this year. In years past, coupon and promotional codes tended to be only for either a percentage off OR free shipping. A more recent trend, which I believe we’ll see a lot this year, is the coveted codes that offer both a percentage off AND free shipping. Another form this may take is adjusted checkout page site programming. Checkout pages may be redesigned for the remainder of 2015 to allow both a percentage savings code and shipping code on the same order.
Speaking of which, here’s a tip you can use right now: Never complete an online checkout without trying multiple savings codes. Some online retailers already allow more than one code, depending on what the code is designed to do. Consumers can miss additional savings because they assume they cannot use more than one code. If you are unable to use more than one, the checkout page will simply give you an error – so there is no harm in trying.
#3: Ship-to-store or direct-to-home free shipping – Many retailers with brick and mortar stores already offer free ship-to-store to online shoppers, as long as the order meets a spend amount. Free direct-to-home shipping can be obtained with an even higher spend amount. In an attempt to remain competitive, I foresee retailers offering free shipping with any, or at least a very low, spend amount.
#4: Black Friday ads earlier than ever – Every year Black Friday ads are released earlier and earlier. I don’t see that reversing. I predict we may see some store ads up to 3 weeks in advance.
#5: Black Friday will be Black Thursday again this year – The past two years, Thanksgiving Day shopping has become a day to almost rival Black Friday – with its own sales and offers. To add to that, last year many stores changed when their Black Friday sales started, and began them on Thursday evening. I foresee more stores participating in this than last year. We may even see some stores alter their hours to accommodate being closed Thanksgiving morning and reopening in the afternoon.
#6: Black Friday / Thanksgiving week shopping will be all week long – We saw some of this last year, but I believe even more stores will jump on this cash wagon; offering special Monday-only sales, Tuesday-only sales, Wednesday-only sales, and so forth. We’ll likely also see additional offers that will span the time from Monday toThursday, leading up to Black Friday specials.
#7: Cyber Monday will get a friend… or several – The success of Cyber Monday has already caused some retailers to duplicate Cyber Monday on other days, such as extending sales into Tuesday – or even going with an entire Cyber Week. My guess is this year we’ll see even more Cyber Monday, or Cyber Weeks, with online retailers extending sale dates or even doing multiple Mondays or full weeks throughout November and December – rather than the former single Monday following Thanksgiving.
