So, the economy sucks. We have all heard the economists and politicians tell their horror stories about how bad the economy is right now. We have heard how less will be spent this Christmas than last year, and probably the year before that, and the year before that, etc.
Yup, doom and gloom folks.
However, this does not mean you can not make money this holiday season. While many consumers are turning away from the brick and mortar stores, many more are turning to online stores for their holiday presents. Forrester Research shows that 27% of people they polled expect to spend more online this holiday season than last year.
So, the people are still buying, and they are doing it online.
In a three part series I am going to explore the online retail trends for this holiday season, and give you some tips on how you can be successful.
The first thing we are going to look at is what is selling this holiday season. The primary component of any retail business plan is choosing what to sell. You can only be successful if you are selling what people want to buy.
comScore has reported that in the third quarter of 2008 video games and consoles showed the most growth over a year ago (60%), followed by Sports and Fitness products (40%) and Home and Garden products (26%). Electronics showed the least growth, at 1%. This would suggest that video games and consoles are going to be a big seller again this Christmas.
While I always suggest keeping the Wii and all of its accessories in your store, you may want to think about including the PlayStation 3 in your inventory. PlayStation 3 is positioned to be very popular this year with the release of some big named games and the increase in popularity in Blu-ray DVD’s. The combination of high quality games and Blu-ray capabilities makes the gaming console that much more attractive because not only is it a gaming system, it is a complete, high-quality entertainment system.
Pricing is almost as important as selling the right product. The Wii and PlayStation 3 will be carried by a lot of retailers and there will be a lot of competition. You may believe that to sell these products successfully you need to sell at the lowest price. Not true. From my experience researching and analyzing what Shopster retailers do I have learned that the retailer with the lowest and highest price sell the least.
If you want to have a successful price-point, set it in the middle somewhere. Do you research on your products and choose a price that is in the middle of what everyone else is offering. I am not sure why, but in this case the middle road is the best road.
In choosing your price, don’t forget about the WalMart effect. That is: low prices will bring the customers in the door, but you will make the money off of the regular or high priced items that the customer will then buy.
Get people in the door by offering low prices on games or accessories, or even a buy one get one free promotion. Then make your money on the consoles when the customer buys it at a mid-range or high-range price.
Whatever your strategy is this Christmas, just make sure you are selling what people want to buy.
Hey
sory to write to you like this, but i could not find the contact form. I really like your blog and i was wondering if you would maybe like a link exchange with my website www.sayeconomy.com . My site has many good articles and gets many new visitors each day. I think we would both benefit out of this exchange alot.
Next to link exchange i would like to offer you an option to publish some articles of yours about economy on my blog, send them to me and i will publish them. You can add link to your blog under each article and i will publish it as a source.
Well let me know on info@sayeconomy.com . I would really like a link exchange with your blog (i like it alot).
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Cheers,
Matt
Posted by: Economy | November 11, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Retailers On The Ropes http://www.badeconomy.ca/finance/246-retailers-on-the-ropes
Posted by: Bad Economy | March 16, 2010 at 08:27 AM