Dr. Kiseol Yang, Assistant Professor-Merchandising & Digital Retailing, University of North Texas
By Dr. Kiseol Yang
(Third in a Series on the Holiday Shopping Season. For the Complete Package Go to the Bottom of this Post.)
The sales and consumer shopping patterns that came about on Thanksgiving and Black Fridaydemonstrated that consumers are more technologically empowered when it comes to finding better deals across channels.
This was evident in a 17.4 percent and 20.7 percent increase in online sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, respectively. When compared with the same weekend in 2011, an increasing number of consumers chose to shop online with their PCs, smartphones or tablets as opposed to waiting in lines at brick-and mortar stores.
By Jay Henderson, Global Strategy Program Director, Enterprise Marketing Management at IBM
There is a reason why back to school sales start earlier every year. It’s a retail goldmine, second only to the grand daddy of them all, the winter holidays. Last year alone, families spent $7.7 billion at clothing stores in August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And with record numbers of students heading off to college this year, the expectation was that we would see huge sales heading into the Labor Day weekend.
At least that’s what many thought would happen. While it’s very possible September could deliver a spike in back to school sales, at this juncture it appears while parents were off packing up the mini-van the majority of students opted not to cash in on big back to school deals.
As a parent do you remember the days when you offered to buy your child something and they politely declined? No? That’s because it doesn’t happen. That’s what made this back to school season so interesting. A recent New York Times article touched on this topic, stating that according to August research from the National Retail Federation only 8 percent of consumers with school-aged children had completed their back-to-school shopping, the lowest figure in four years. One reason for this may be that students are waiting to see what hot new items their peers have chosen before taking the plunge themselves.
What this leaves us with is a classic “Chicken and Egg” scenario with students waiting to see who buys what pair of jeans and whether messenger bags are still cool before diving in themselves. And that was the case for most returning students…but not all. Continue Reading »
By Jill Puleri, IBM Global Retail Leader
Two weeks ago I sent my oldest son off to college. Leading up to this moment, we spent a lot of time (and money) stocking up his freshman dorm room with things to make him feel at home. Like any mom, I’ve spent the past 18 years shopping for my kids.
Well, that’s all about to change. I now have an empty bedroom in the house and a little bit of extra time to spend money on myself. While my son has his nose in the books this fall, my nose will be sniffing out updates to my wardrobe and home décor to spruce up my new guestroom.
According to IBM’s latest analytics-based retail forecast for Q3, I’m not the only mom who shares this sentiment. Here are a few of our predictions:
Category Percent Increase
Women’s Clothing 8.81%
Beauty 12.11%
Home 8.39%
Last year, we saw great increases in men’s categories, but this year’s projected numbers show a category swap. With men outfitted in a new wardrobe last year, women are taking advantage of the bit of extra money to spend on themselves.
By Ron van Kemenade, CIO ING Bank Netherlands
Who said banking was boring?
Let me explain first … before you conclude that banking is indeed boring. Banking is typically regarded as a low involvement product, a boring product. Based on some interesting research, however, we discovered that people actually have a lot of emotions and feelings when banking.
We recently asked and observed retail and business customers about our products and service – what they liked and disliked. It was part of a joint project with our Marketing team to study customer human emotions such as anger, boredom and surprise to see what affect if any they had on the ING brand.
Here’s what we found.
With routine banking, our research shows that customers feel bored and safe and have minimal emotional reaction. With complex banking products, more extreme emotions such as fear, hope and nervousness play a role. With complex banking products, customers feel emotions and feelings about fear and hope.
It may not come as a surprise to most that emotions play a significant role, but from a banker’s perspective, it was a great insight. The research clearly showed that we needed to pay more attention to the customer experience. In a very short time we had a banking crisis, and now we are dealing with the Euro crisis. So it’s understandable that customers today are insecure about their financial future.
Within ING, we had always focused IT on creating more efficiency and effectiveness. When dealing with other people’s money, we can’t afford any mistakes in our processes. Dealing or developing products was mostly about solving a problem from a technical standpoint.
The past few years have taught us that efficiency in customer interactions is not enough. To become the preferred bank for customers, we have to build a relationship of trust by delivering excellent products at a fair price and mitigating negative emotions surrounding personal finance. We’re now building a culture where we solve problems from a customer’s perspective vs. just from a technical standpoint.
I’m very enthusiastic about the possibilities that current technology will give us in the coming years, and this will only improve. CMOs and CIOs together must forge a shared agenda to drive marketing innovation, blending the art of marketing with the science of technology. As a CIO today, for instance, it’s important to consider how technology affects all departments in addition to managing traditional IT management responsibilities. Success for ING is not only doing things in a more efficient and effective way. It’s also taking into account the emotions when dealing with our bank and putting technology to work in creating great customer experiences.
On Tuesday, September 4th at 1 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CET, Ron van Kemenade, CIO ING Bank Netherlands and Yuchun Lee , vice president and general manager for IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management Group will participate in a twitter chat about how Smarter Commerce plays a role at ING, what it takes to market to the digital customer, and the why it’s so important for the CMO and CIO to forge a solid relationship. To join the conversation follow the hashtag #GetRealChat or follow @INGnl_Ron and Yuchun Lee and @IBMSmrtCommerce.
By Michael Haydock, IBM Business Analytics Optimization Chief Scientist & Distinguished Engineer
Last week, I was sitting on a panel with Ellen Davis of the National Retail Foundation on Back to School shopping trends. We engaged in a spirited hour-long discussion around changing consumer shopping behaviors, the state of the economy and of course, predictions for the upcoming fall retail season. Ellen and I both work with retailers every day, and we continuously find our clients challenged with the age-old question: “What do consumers want?”
One of the reporters that I met at the meeting dubbed me a ‘data geek.’ It’s fairly accurate considering I’ve been collecting retail data for the past 22 years and combining it with current economic trends to create a predictive retail forecast.
My latest forecast, for the third quarter, predicts that the fall season will be moderate to strong (depending on the category) for retailers, particularly in the categories of children’s and women’s apparel, as well as footwear. Despite the economy (which is not as strong as in the 1st quarter of this year), consumers still are showing signs that they are ready to shop – given the right conditions.
This quarter I decided to take these numbers a step further and couple them with an IBM Social Sentiment Analysis. The big insight from the data revealed that consumers do plan to shop, but they are deferring some purchases and waiting to see if retailers can offer them the right deal.
My team looked at nearly 237,000 posts on social platforms, such as Twitter, blogs, message boards and news sources from mid-April to mid-July 2011, and the same time period for 2012. We found a 50 percent increase in online chatter around coupon and promotion sharing in the span of a year. Yet, women’s satisfaction in the quality of online offers decreased by 20 percent this year, as compared to last.
In 2008 at the start of the recession, many retailers overstocked on inventory, later being forced to slash prices by 60, 70 even 80 percent. Consumers, no doubt, were delighted with the quality and quantity of these sales. The IBM Social Sentiment Index shows that consumers are still clinging to the discounts of the past, as they are still looking for deep discounts, and holding out on their purchases until retailers can provide better offers.
Today retailers are in the tough position of trying to reset consumer expectations that a 25 percent-off coupon is, indeed, a good deal.
The reason that we produce these analytics-based retail forecasts and social sentiment reports is to help retailers understand their market influences and customers, better. We try to arm businesses with insight into what items are going to sell, what promotions might work and what items and categories that they may need to stock up on.
This fall season is poised to be a promising one – led by women’s and children’s sales. Personalized and timely promotions will be key to securing consumer purchases. Retailers—go ahead and stock up, but don’t forget the coupons!
This post is the first in a series of posts about retail shopping trends. See part two of the series here.
by Yuchun Lee, Vice President, IBM Enterprise Marketing Management Group
From digital marketing and mobile commerce, to web sites and social media, marketers are exhausted by data, 2.5 quintillion bytes of which are being generated every day. Within the marketing community there is almost unanimous agreement that an integrated technology suite is the CMO’s best bet to regain control and remain connected to consumers.
Yet if I were to ask a room of marketers how many have such a system in place, very few would raise their hands.
So what’s your excuse?
by Dr. Björn Christensen, Chief Executive Officer of meteolytix
A rainy day can generate a sudden spike in cupcake sales while a hot summer day can generate a surge in the sales of panini’s.
These are some surprising trends hidden in mountains of information that analytics can unearth to help businesses understand their consumers better and seize the unexpected business opportunity.
Consumer-focused businesses know all too well just how much weather shifts can affect consumer demand. Retailers, restaurant chains and consumer product companies often point to the weather as a key factor driving positive and negative variations in sales.
So how can your business manage weather’s impact to predict consumer buying trends more effectively?
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by Jill Puleri, IBM GBS Retail Leader
We grew up hearing the story of Hansel and Gretel, but it’s not until recently that the moral became applicable to the business world. According to the story, Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs so the duo can find their way home, but they get lost after the birds make the bread their dinner. As the IBM GBS Retail Leader, I’ve taken a lesson or two from Hansel’s mishap — it’s that if you don’t watch the breadcrumbs carefully, you’ll never find your way to the prize. Continue Reading »
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John Squire is IBM’s director of Digital Marketing and Analytics
What do Valentine’s Day and the December Holidays have in common? If you look past gifts, romance and loved ones the answer may surprise you: mobile shopping
I have spent a great deal of time over the last two months dissecting the influence of the empowered consumer. Throughout that time, the conversation has focused primarily on the emergence of the mobile shopper. Continue Reading »
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By Steve Canepa, General Manager, Global Media & Entertainment Industry
February seems to be a month of excitement for all movie, television and sports enthusiasts. It’s that time of year – Super Bowl madness and Oscar Buzz – frenzy so electric that it transcends worlds – into the social media world. Think about it, how long does it take for you to see a Tweet or Facebook post once you hear the winner for Best Motion Picture or following the first touch-down? Seconds? Continue Reading »
