Market Track Study: Shoppers Expected to “Fall” for Early Discounts This 2016 Holiday Season

Nearly One-Third of US Shoppers Plan on Completing Holiday Shopping
Before November

Survey Respondents Overwhelmingly Cite Amazon as the Top Online
Shopping Destination of Choice

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Gone are the days where shoppers would anxiously wait for the big Black
Friday circular unveiling—they now have access to the Black Friday sales
well in advance of the event. New survey data from Market
Track, LLC, the leading provider of advertising, promotional, brand
protection and pricing intelligence solutions in North America, suggests
that by the time the last slice of pumpkin pie gets consumed this
upcoming Thanksgiving, nearly half of U.S. shoppers will already have
completed the majority of their holiday purchases.

In a nationwide survey of 1,000 consumers, 27% of the respondents stated
that they plan to do the bulk of their holiday shopping before the
calendar hits November—a stat that is up eight percentage points from
2015. Competitive pricing throughout the season combined with fabricated
shopping events have trained consumers to shop earlier, with a total of
49% planning to do the majority of their holiday shopping before the big
feast.

“Beating other retailers to the punch by taking demand out of the market
early is nothing new,” explains Traci Gregorski, Senior Vice President
of Marketing at Market Track. “Look for early digital sales to kick off
the season in earnest with compelling deals in October to entice
consumers to shop early. In addition, there will be heightened
competition for online shoppers with significant online discounting
extending to the Saturday before Christmas. Last year we saw discounts
on many hot holiday items at 40% below the Black Friday sale price
toward the end of the season.”

For shoppers who are planning to wait until after the big turkey dinner,
52% intend to shop online on Black Friday, while 61% said they would
wait until Cyber Monday to shop for the holidays. Respondents also cited
overwhelmingly that e-retail giant Amazon will be their top online
shopping destination and where they plan to allocate a majority of their
online budget for holiday this year.

The implications of online commerce extend far beyond the transaction
data—the survey indicates that digital interactions influence 66% of
shoppers on their in-store purchases. Regardless of when consumers are
shopping, the survey indicates that 73% of shoppers plan on researching
prices online ahead of shopping in-store this season.

Based on the survey, the researchers at Market Track predict the
following trends to watch for this 2016 holiday shopping season:

• Mobile’s impact throughout the purchase journey: Mobile’s
  influence cannot be downplayed—mobile enables consumers to interact
  from the planning stage to the trip, while they are in the moment, and
  post-purchase. Whether it is through price or stock status research,
  SMS offers or app-specific sales and alerts, or people using their
  mobile phones to transact, mobile will play a significant role in
  influencing decisions throughout the purchase journey.
• Strategically complicated offers: To make it challenging to do
  straight price comparisons across retailers, look for product and
  service bundles in addition to specialty products with limited
  availability.
• Differentiation through experience/service: Driving traffic
  in-store is still imperative to profitability due to the propensity of
  shoppers to add additional items to their cart as they walk through
  the store—the online shopping experience is much more linear, with
  less opportunity for add-on items. In order to drive traffic in-store
  this season, retailers will host events and will do more promotion
  around service and expertise to lure shoppers in.
• Competitive pricing throughout the season: Retailers are being
  forced to discount throughout the duration of the season on all
  categories, but especially on those that are highly researched and
  purchased online like toys, electronics, wearables, and TVs.
• Direct to consumer: More manufacturers are initiating a
  relationship with the online shopper—many are commerce-enabled and
  actively looking to sell directly to consumers.

About the Survey

Market Track conducted a survey of 1,000 shoppers in August 2016.
Shoppers were asked about their own holiday shopping behaviors. Survey
respondents represented even distribution across gender and
representative sampling across age groups.

About Market Track

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Market Track is the leading provider
of subscription-based advertising, brand and pricing intelligence
solutions in North America. Through monitoring trade and promotional
advertising, pricing and e-commerce activity, brand protection and
competitive advertising activity, Market Track provides the most
comprehensive coverage of key media channels available. Market Track’s
solutions enable advertisers, agencies, retailers, and manufacturers to
efficiently monitor and analyze causal data, creative execution, and ad
spending to maximize the value of their marketing campaigns. Clients use
Market Track’s SaaS solutions to determine how competing retailers,
products and brands are being advertised, priced and promoted both
in-store and online. The company’s granular creative assets and data
cover nearly every retail trade class, product category and media
channel. For more information, please visit www.markettrack.com.

Contacts

The Pollack PR Marketing Group
Stefan Pollack/Megan Gallagher
(310)
556-4443
spollack@ppmgcorp.com
mgallagher@ppmgcorp.com