Septembers' back to school shopping was inspired by all of the promotion through coupons and sales. It was much more successful than retailers had planned for so they are hopping that they can expect more sales during the year-end holidays. Sarah Henry, retail analyst at MFC Global Investment Management said that there is usually a strong statistical correlation between back to schools ales and holiday sales. So it is safe too assume that there should be a rise in sales after the October break where not too much shopping is done.
Playing it safe I think Retailers are being smart in not assuming their sales will be so large, they are being realistic, but as much of the news has been saying, we are slowly coming out of this recession, but if there really is such a strong statistical correlation between back to school sales and holiday sales, hopefully they don't begin to assume higher expectations in the future. Better to be safe.
-Jacky Meltzer
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537732859742138.html
It's very interesting that school spending was actually successful this year, it seemed logical that it would fall short in the industry. Discount stores are typically expected to get the majority of sales, especially in back to school shopping, but even higher end retailers such as Nordstrom and Saks posted increases in sales. The cause of it is most likely because of the amount of promotions retailers have become accustomed to accommodating consumers with. Even after the recession is long gone, I predict we will still be bargain shopping more than before our economic crisis began. I agree with you Jacky, it's better safe than sorry, and retailers are going to need to keep up with the promotions during the holiday season to fight for the consumer's attention and money.
ReplyDelete--Leah Stoltz
I do agree with both of you in the sense that it is always better for companies to be safe than sorry. However, unlike Leah said, it doesn't baffle me that sales increased during the opening of the school year, because that is how it has been for years. Companies always do well during that season for it makes sense to me that people across the nation need supplies before school starts! The difference is - that this year(as Leah mentioned), people will be drawn to places with big discounts, and so there will be a lot of competition because all stores will start to lower their prices. I believe that companies will prosper during this holiday season, but like you said Jacky, they shouldn't keep their expectations too high, because we never know what the outcome may be.
ReplyDelete-Tania Dabdoub