In an ongoing effort to understand how consumers continue to adapt to the recession, we recently asked BIGresearch to explore with consumers what “big ticket” purchases they have either put off – or may never make at all. While tighter purse strings are a given these days, the results illustrate how priorities differ across consumer segments. The overall good news: retailers in the business of selling big ticket items can take heart, even if they have to be patient as some consumers delay some of those purchases for now.

A side note: unlike many of the studies that Shop.org commissions, this survey is not specific to the Web. However, the results are entirely relevant to online retailers as consumers increasingly shop across channels. (For the flip side of the coin, I recommend reading also the list of consumer “untouchables”(i.e. what they absolutely won’t give up) that STORES magazine published in this month’s issue.)

So – we first asked consumers “As a result of the recession, which of the following major (big dollar) purchases are you waiting to make?” Top of the list: vacation travel, which over a third of consumers is putting off for now, with women taking a somewhat harder line than men on this luxury. Interestingly, income doesn’t seem to be the only deciding factor on this item – somewhat more high income earners ($50+K per annum) are putting off vacations than are those consumers earning less.

Next on the chopping block for approximately one quarter of consumers: major home improvement or repair projects (the irony here being that some contractors likely now have more time to return calls and maybe even negotiate, unlike in boom years past), furniture, a TV, a computer, and home appliances. Again, consumer segments reveal some differences for each of these. For example, 29% of 18 to 34 year olds are waiting to buy a new computer (presumably the old one works fine?) but just 17% of consumers aged 55 and older are putting off this purchase. Ditto for furniture. A quarter of consumers earning less than $50K per year is putting off buying a new TV, compared with one fifth of those earning more (perhaps the latter already bought a great TV not long before the economy took a tumble?).

What about purchases that consumers had in mind to purchase at some point but now think they may never make at all? Overall, vacation travel (25%) and major home improvements / repairs (20.3%) appear furthest out of reach for some consumers. Perhaps not surprisingly, one quarter of consumers aged 18 to 34 think they may never buy a house, more so than all other age groups. The good news: overall, few consumers seem to think they’ll never be able to buy new big ticket items such as consumer electronics (e.g. a digital camera, a DVD player, etc.), jewelry, furniture, and the like – even if a few are putting off those purchases for the immediate time.

Shop.org Members can download the full, segmented results now. Let me know your thoughts and comments!

Greetings

We are doing a ton of new things at our upcoming Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference in San Francisco.   We have a mobile boot camp, we are bringing two groups of the NRF community together, but we are also very excited to be involved with The Racie  Awards.  The Racie Awards, distributed by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) are given each year to honor the very best campaigns for advertising in the retail industry.  This year in honor of our new event we have included a variety of online and digital category awards.  You can find out the winners at the dinner at the Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference on March 3.   Click here to read all about the finalists and Racie attendees will select the winners in seven categories during live voting at the Awards Gala. 

Have a great weekend everyone and make sure you book your reservation for both the mobile boot camp and the Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference since space is limited.

We’re unswerving advocates of all things digital, and fancy ourselves as rather forward-thinking in social media and online communications of all flavors. But we’re also people. And as people, we like to see other people – in person. Sure, technology can offer a substitute for some face-to-face interaction, just as Tofurkey is served on many Thanksgiving tables. Much of the same nutritional content is there, and it’s a laudable effort. But compared to the real thing, it doesn’t pair nearly as well with chardonnay.

Shop.org Regional Dinners, on the other hand, offer conversation as bright and complex as a bottle of Napa Valley’s finest, insights as satisfying as a beautifully marbled porterhouse, and networking as rich as a chocolate lava cake. Regional Dinners put the “Mm” in Community and add to the “bene” in your Member Benefits (though, with the popularity of bacon-wrapped filets, they don’t contribute as evenly to the “fit” in your Benefits).

In 2010, Shop.org will host 29 Regional Dinners in 15 cities across the country. They are free for retail members to attend, though in truth the free isn’t what makes them priceless. They provide a casual yet focused environment to network with retail peers, unencumbered by an agenda. Attendees love them because they offer the immediate gratification of a satisfying conversation with a like-minded professional, and because they pay the long-term annuity of personal contacts to reconnect with when an outside perspective or recommendation is needed.

See the 2010 Regional Dinner Schedule here. If there isn’t one near you, you might find one coinciding with an industry event you’re attending. Yeah, we’re stalking you around the country. But we’re bringing steak and scotch, so we didn’t think you’d object.

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“Know your Member Benefits” is a series designed to shed some light on some of the perks, savings opportunities, exclusive content and other assets provided with your Shop.org membership. Feel free to forward these posts to your digital retail teammates, as your membership benefits extend company-wide.

With all eyes trained on the quarter in progress and the full year ahead, the first of the new year’s bigger shopping holidays – Valentine’s Day – is a scant two weeks away. While many consumers are still recovering from recent Holiday expenditures, this occasion’s appeal to love and friendship is proving hard for consumers ignore entirely — and online shoppers look like a particularly promising segment. 

According to an NRF survey conducted in early to mid-January by BIGresearch:

• 60% of US consumers aged 18 and older plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day in some way this year. 
• 16% (or almost two in ten) US consumers celebrating Valentine’s Day will use the Web to make at least some of their purchases for the occasion.
• Good news for online retailers: the online Valentine’s Day shopper expects to spend a combined net average of $171.81 on loved ones and friends for the occasion, or two-thirds more than for consumers across all channels ($103.00). 

While online Valentine’s Day shoppers still constitute a relatively small segment overall, savvy online retailers will showcase their Valentine’s Day offerings (both product and promotions) to capture incremental mid-winter sales.

• The bulk of Valentine’s Day expenditures is intended for spouses and significant others: online shoppers plan to spend a net average of almost $100 specifically for their significant other or spouse — i.e. 57% more than consumers overall.
• Online shoppers plan to buy many of the same things that other consumers will buy (greeting cards, candy, an evening out, flowers, jewelry), but on average expect to spend somewhat more for each gift type. For example, well over a quarter of online shoppers anticipate buying jewelry for the occasion (quite a bit more so than consumers across all channels, by the way), and expect to spend a net average of $41.34 in this category. That compares with an expected net average spend of $21.52 for shoppers across all channels who plan to buy some bling. Similarly, online shoppers plan to spend more than twice the net average for all shoppers on clothing and gift cards. And while it might be difficult to buy online an entire evening out (theater or movie tickets yes, dinner perhaps not?), online shoppers also plan to spend more on that than do other shoppers.

Will Valentine’s Day portend how the rest of 2010 will go? I doubt that any one occasion can do that accurately, especially in these as yet uncertain times. Nevertheless, it will be an interesting first gauge of how consumers tackle more “discretionary” holiday shopping at least in the first quarter or two.

Shop.org Members can download the full results of this survey now. Please see also the NRF press release issued today. 

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts!

In September over 300 of you attended an all-day Shop.org Online Boot Camp which was an intense and tactical look at some of the core concepts in the world of online marketing and merchandising. The event provided “Tips for Success” on some of the most important topics in eCommerce. 6 topics, 7+ hours, 9 speakers, 12 roundtables, 300+ attendees = It was a hit.

Since we received such great feedback we put together a “Playbook” with more information on the same topics and from the same speakers and brought back a few of our experts for a webinar on February 3rd(FREE for Shop.org Members) to dive into their tips in the areas of:

• Social Commerce. What are the best practices to leverage social throughout your organization, impacting marketing, merchandising, and even customer support?
• Merchandising for Conversion. A list of the most important steps for merchandising and on-site search success that will result in higher conversion, units per transaction, AOV, and most importantly creating a consistent and superior customer experience.
• Testing. A soup-to-nuts guide of what to test, how to test and what to do with the results to improve conversion rates and make more money from the traffic you generate.

If you attended Boot Camp or read the Playbook and want to hear more from these speakers or HAVE QUESTIONS for our speakers/experts – you should register.

If you attended Boot Camp or read the Playbook and want to share this with your colleagues – you should pass this information to them so THEY can register.

We know it can be hard to sit at your desk and listen to a webinar for an hour… but do it while you eat your lunch or organize your workspace and make sure your digital marketing and merchandising are firing on all cylinders. Register today and let us know what you think after the webinar…