Holiday hopes: From November to a December to remember - by Faith Hope Consolo

Faith Hope Consolo, Douglas Elliman

Get ready, get set and go! Holiday season 2015 is upon us and it’s already big! Shoppers spent $20.45 billion in total sales throughout the Thanksgiving holiday week, including November 26^th - 29^th. The much anticipated Thanksgiving Day – aka Gray Thursday – and Black Friday sales were somewhat eclipsed by the previous week’s well-advertised door buster sales, both in-store and online. Consumer confidence continues and the holiday shopping season is starting out on a high note.

As predicted, a significant percentage of this year’s sales have been digital. More than one-third of the shopping has already been on-line. Reuters concurs citing a slight decline in in-store sales for the holidays, so far, but they added that “consumers displayed a willingness to spend in multiple channels that bodes well for a strong holiday season.” So far, 36.1% of the Black Friday sales were placed via smartphones and tablets, compared with 30.3% a year ago.

So it only stands to reason that chief among the gift categories are digitally-based items. Or as I call it, “boys like their toys” – and so do us girls! Apple products and electronics are driving sales currently with various retailers and in their own brand stores. At Target, for example, the top-selling Black Friday products included the iPad, Apple Watch and headphones made by Apple-owned Beats. Target also reported that Apple’s tablet was its top-seller, both in stores and on-line, with an average of one sale every second on Thanksgiving Day.

Multiple surveys found that 121 million shoppers planned to make their Cyber Monday purchases online. That’s slightly down from the 125.9 million who had planned to shop on-line last year, but it’s still a positive holiday picture for retailers, overall.

The digital age has had a profound impact on the retail landscape. Many shoppers prefer purchasing gifts from the comfort of their homes rather than braving the madness of traditional Black Friday. And not only were shoppers purchasing electronics on-line, many were buying children’s gifts on store websites.

A significant factor driving e-commerce is social media. Instagram rolled out “carousel ads” consisting of multiple photos that show up on targeted user’s feeds and  drives the users to the advertiser’s website. To support the marketing strategy, Instagram also created the “Like2Buy” feature, which adds a link that takes users directly to the advertisers retail website to make the purchases. Another platform, Snapchat, follows online shopping trends with a new feature that gives shoppers an inside look at the latest products.

But even with the expedience of online shopping, it’s clear that the majority of consumers are still focused on the “touchy-feely” aspect of in-store shopping. Shopping malls and Main Street are busy!

Over this holiday season, which stretches from a buoyant pre-Thanksgiving week through Cyber Monday; to a December benefitting from an early Chanukah to Christmas, shoppers are continuing to reap the rewards of retail marketing on multiple platforms.

A particularly long season of discounts also helps explain why consumers are trending to early shopping. Over half of holiday gift buyers had already started shopping by early November and as early as Halloween.

For those who have yet to get the ball rolling on their holiday shopping, don’t despair because there are plenty of deals planned throughout December. If you’re looking to buy toys, mid-December is your best bet. Planning on gifting someone a brand new car? December is also the sweet spot.

With shopping already in full gear what are consumers currently focused on? Regarding electronics, the five best-selling products on Black Friday were the Samsung 4K TV, Apple iPad Air 2, Microsoft Xbox One, Apple iPad Mini, and Sony PS4. The five most popular toys were Lego Dimensions, Shopkin dolls, Lego Star Wars, Barbie Dream House, and Lego Friends.

Preliminary data shows that shopping during the Black Friday week paid off with steep discounts. Data shows Thanksgiving and Black Friday, combined, provided shoppers with an average of 40% savings. Cyber Monday offered, on average, a slightly lower rate at 36.4%

By Thanksgiving we were already a quarter of the way there, now it’s time for a December to remember! So with plenty of deals to be had and plenty of shopping to do, keep calm and shop on! Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping!       

Faith Hope Consolo is the chairman of Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing, marketing and sales division, New York, N.Y.