FRONT LINES

{OCTOBER 2015}
The Hot List

Info Bites to Fuel Your Business

1
GIFT MARKET SHIFTS

Don’t wait until Black Friday to focus on holiday gift sales. Changing shopping trends are resulting in earlier Christmas gift shopping than ever. A recent report from Unity Marketing indicates consumers are doing their holiday shopping sooner—and doing more general gift shopping throughout the year, leaving the fourth quarter much less of a contributor to overall retail sales.

2
WE “LIKE” FACEBOOK

Credit: OmniArt/Shutterstock.com

Last year, 75% of global social media advertising dollars went to Facebook, and that number looks to increase before 2015 is over. According to recent polling, U.S. retailers plan to spend even more on social media ads—with half of them focusing on Facebook in particular. YouTube and Pinterest are the next-favored advertising sites (29% and 27%, respectively).

Research supports the retailers’ decisions, showing Facebook and Pinterest to be bigger social shopping destinations than Twitter. A study earlier this year of U.S. digital buyers showed that:

49% “pinned” products on Pinterest

48% “liked” retailers on Facebook

38% followed retailers on Twitter

Sources: National Retail Federation, eMarketer, Marketing Land, UPS

3
LEADERS OF THE PACK?

Last year, both men and women had been even-steven regarding frequency of online shopping. A quarter of both sexes said they hit e-tail sites at least once a week (Bronto Software 2014 survey). But the same survey done this year reveals a shifting consumer behavior.

30% of male respondents shop e-tail sites weekly

vs.

18% of female respondents

Why the shift? The Bronto research team thinks it could be due to better mobile retail tech options or a less intimidating way to shop (for men). Or, it may be due to better brick-and-mortar retail efforts to get women back into stores.

Source: Direct Marketing News