It’s official, Christmas is coming earlier and earlier every year in retail.
‘Christmas in July’ is a staple in the marketing calendars of retailers and yesterday, on August 1st, 2017 – 147 days before Christmas – Selfridges officially opened its Christmas shop on the fourth floor of its Oxford Street store in London. This early launch marks a growing trend among retailers eager to get ahead of the competition and capitalize on holiday shopping. With festive displays and exclusive seasonal products, Selfridges aims to be among the winners in retail 2017, appealing to customers looking to get a jump start on their gift-giving. The move has sparked interest from shoppers and competitors alike, setting the stage for a bustling holiday season. This early launch highlights the growing trend of holiday shopping, as consumers increasingly look for festive options well before December. Selfridges is at the forefront of the Christmas retail marketing evolution, setting the tone for other retailers to follow suit. As competition intensifies, the anticipation for holiday shopping continues to shift earlier in the calendar year.
So where did Christmas in July come from? And how important is it for retailers?
In the retail world, summer is a relatively slow season, lacking the hype of other seasons that leads to higher rates of spending. But why wait for the calendar to dictate sales? The big retailers are certainly not waiting for busy seasons to come along. Instead, the likes of Amazon, Target and Walmart launched ‘Christmas in July’ – a series of sales designed to increase sales much earlier and jumpstart the holiday season by offering products at low prices. These strategies reflect broader trends in retail for 2019, where retailers are increasingly focused on breaking the traditional sales calendar to capture consumer attention year-round. By creating excitement and urgency during typically slow periods, they can drive early traffic and boost overall sales. This proactive approach not only benefits retailers but also gives consumers opportunities for great deals outside of the typical shopping rush.
Amazon has taken things one step further and now has its own annual summer twist on Black Friday – Amazon Prime Day – held every July.
So what’s the logic? Why are retailers getting behind Christmas in July?
Answer 1: Loyalty – and the £ it brings.
Kathy Allen, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation in the USA suggests: “When the holiday season does come, maybe that person who had a wonderful experience shopping in July remembers to come back [to that store], and will spend their holiday dollars there, or their Halloween dollars or their birthday dollars.”
Answer 2: Many shoppers do their holiday shopping year-round!
Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing USA and author of the Gifting Report: “In our study, we also discovered that those who started their shopping early spent up to twice as much on the holiday as compared with those who started on Black Friday or later in December.”
“The key takeaway from this finding is clear: encourage shoppers to start their Christmas shopping early and they will spend more. There is a large and powerful market here of year-round Christmas gift shoppers, one that retailers can’t afford to ignore. We advise marketers to start their promotion of Christmas gifts early — some 22 percent of shoppers work on their Christmas shopping throughout the year.”
Steps SME retailers can take:
Although US-based businesses are leading the way with Christmas in July, as with the Black Friday/Cyber Monday phenomenon, it’s now a staple in the diaries of UK retail marketeers.
Of course, not all retailers are in a position to offer significant discounts on products almost year-round, but there are tactics that can be deployed to create a similar effect.
- Reward Loyalty
By offering seasonal rewards to loyal customers or by providing new customer offers (to turn them into loyal customers), you can capture and recapture your audience before the season begins.
- Be personal and original
Offer an experience that is worth the customer’s participation. Capture them with clever marketing and keep your buying process (purchases and returns) as convenient as possible. All of this helps to both capture and retain customers ahead of peak season.
You already have data to capture your customers before the Christmas period – you just need to use it! By using this data, you can market to your customers exactly when they Viagra 100mg want, with exactly what they want.
At AlphaGraphics, we specialise in helping retail businesses deliver data-driven, automated marketing campaigns to improve lead generation. To find out more, visit: https://retail.alphagraphics.co.uk/our-services/
