Did you know that you could write for Associated Content? I wrote to them quite some time back and set up my account there, but still haven’t got started on publishing anything as yet. I certainly plan to do so, as I think it’s a great platform, certainly one of the best in the industry these days. I want to specialize what I write for AC, instead of writing general stuff, like I often end up doing here. But since this is my personal blog, I get to do as I please, right? Right!
Back-to-school sales are falling behind their schedule lately, as students are waiting to see what other students are wearing and determining what is cool, before doing their own shopping. The change is throwing retailer’s cycle’s off by quite a bit, as they have had to extend the back-to-school sales till mid September. The back-to-school season is the second most successful season after the holiday season for retailers and this change is cause for concern for them.
According to research by The NPD Group, in 2005 36% of consumers started doing their back-to-school shopping in August and 25% started their shopping in September. In 2007, only 25% of students started their back-to-school shopping in August, with 38% waiting till September to start theirs, showing how quickly the trend has caught on. The research was conducted by polling 63,000 students in July and August.
Students are also waiting to buy new merchandise so that they can stock up on warmer clothing, while others are spreading their spending budgets over an extended period of time rather than spending it all in one go. As a result of these changes in shopping habits, retailers are having to shift their clearance sales for a later time, probably to October before switching over to holiday merchandise.
“This (trend) is sending hives through the bodies of most retailers,” says Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD. “They all want to put their Christmas merchandise out by the end of August.”
Some, however, have begun to embrace the trend. “Students get back to school and are inspired by what they see each other wearing,” says Susan McGalla, president and chief merchandiser at American Eagle, with 932 stores in 50 states. “Does this spur another round of buying? Yes.”
More on cars, this time on accessories such as a car spoiler, which seems to be one of the most popular accessories people get for their cars. I never quite understood the craze for them, but for those who did, they can be one of the best things ever. I’ve always wanted to have a great music system and speaker set for the car, since I love to listen to music when I drive, and that is where I would spend my money.
Ok, so we’re nearing the weekend and as much as I like to chill and relax a bit, its time to do some research at the local malls and see what people are buying here. I will be leaving my wallet at home and instead be carrying a notepad and pen to jot down my findings and not get tempted to spend all my money! It’s a good way to get an idea of what is really going on as opposed to what is being pushed by the media and especially by the mall management who are constantly trying to push up rentals.
Take this example for instance: one of the new malls in Bombay has been reporting enormously high number of footfalls, both during the week and on the weekends. While the number were really high, several of the retailers I spoke to, weren’t happy with sales there. I decided to spend some time there investigating and found that most people were not shopping, but coming in just to avoid the heat, to catch up with friends, maybe to eat something at the food court any buy something small, just to make themselves feel that they had bought something, but of an insignificant amount to the retailer. Probably only 25% of the people there were carrying shopping bags, and most of them were of the grocery store anchor and not of the other mall stores. A completely different story than reported by the media and the mall management, right?
Buying a new vehicle makes everything about cars, trucks and accessories of all kinds, seem so much more fun. Anyone who has a new truck will go gaga on some of these truck accessories, a situation that is apparently quite common among new owners of any kind of vehicle. My favorite type of vehicle would have to be either a SUV or a zippy and sporty small car. I’m not one for all those fancy schmancy cars that are so low that you feel like you right next to the road. I love a vehicle that is as adventurous as I am and can go off the road and into a ditch, through a river and still come up smiling!
Been checking my stats and noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from Sweden lately. I wonder if it was because I’ve been writing a lot about Ikea lately? It certainly looks like the reason, that suddenly Swedish bloggers what to link to me or read my blog. While I like to blog about international retail developments and trends, lately I have been concentrating a bit more on just the local scene and personal inputs, which I hope to change.
I find that watching and following the trends is a lot of fun, especially since there are just so many media sources reporting them. Any trend to do with celebrities takes on a life of its own and for any marketer, this is the quickest way to achieve success. There has been a lot of buzz in the market for baby slings, which are really becoming very popular due to the number of celebrities who use them for their kids. Anything and everything that is associated with anyk kind of celebrity becomes a trend and anything to do with a celebrity baby becomes a runaway success, in today’s media frenzied age. The fact remains that baby slings are a very comfortable way to carry a baby and free your hands to do more; more shopping, more texting; more eating and so on. The result is that everyone wins and the saga continues on!
This is an interesting piece of news that I read today on Tech Digest. Coca Cola has reportedly created a way of keeping their bottles cold by using a new technology that will form ice when the cap is twisted off. The ice is formed of the drink itself, making it a rather innovative way to cool a drink. This new technology will be tested on Sprite initially with actual products reaching the stores in the UK by early next year under the label Sprite Super Chilled. Once this product is successfully tested, Coca Cola will adapt the technology to its other drinks, and might even sell it to beer manufacturers.
Original source: Shiny Shiny
Well, I’ve been having a bit of problem by accidentally deleting some of my posts and am now not able to get them back. Still have to figure out what is going wrong but until then I guess, I have to make sure that I am doublely careful when it comes to managing my edit page, where I have all the controls over my posts.
There’s a new way to find the best travel directions no matter where you are in the US or the UK. All you have to do is to enter your location and you will be shown a detailed travel map of where you want to go as well as the best combination of available transportation that is possible. So it could be a combination of driving, taking the bus, walking, subway etc. It’s so much more interactive than just looking at a flat static map and trying to figure it out yourself. Public Routes is the best way to get a driving directions map and chart out a route no matter where you are going, and doing it is so much simpler than ever before. I simply love the idea of it and can’t wait to start using it.