Offer free deliveries for online sales
Many retailers have decided to promote online sales by offering free or reduced deliveries:
- Marks & Spencer offered deliveries for 1p from November 11th to 15th in celebration of its 125th anniversary
- Best Buy in the US has set its shipping price to USD0.99 for the Christmas period.
- Amazon in the UK has extended its Free Super Saver Delivery to all items above £5 during Christmas time.
Fine-tune loyalty programs
Tesco has advanced the sent out of £67m February 2010 statement to November 30 in order to boost its Christmas sales.
Communicate on price cuts
When M&S communicates on special offers (three-for-two and half-price offers, dine in for two for £10…), some retailers prefer to communicate with numbers for pricecuts:
- Tesco £250m
- Asda £150m
- Co-op £200m
Get mobile internet into the game
US retailers (Walmart, Kmart, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, JC Penney, Target, Gap…) are now targeting smartphone users by launching applications to promote deals, check availability of items of find stores. Walmart chief executive Raul Vazquez said the new app has already been download 300,000 times and they expect 1m till the end of the year.
Anticipate demand on successful toys
Each year, retailers are brainstorming to find what will be the most successful toys. The key point being to avoid shortages. These are two of the most successful toys for this last Christmas:
- Zhu Zhu Pets (Cepia LLC) are battery powered interactive hamsters. The manufacturer predicted shortages and noticed that the the bankrupt of Woolworths hasn’t been balanced by the other retailers.
(Zhu Zhu Pets are also known as Go Go Hamsters in the UK and are distributed by The Character Group). - Bakugan Battle Brawlers (Spin Masters) is a game that uses cards and action figures.