Wal-Mart, Target Prepare for the Holiday Toy Wars BA 495 Article Presentation Andy Hagert Casey Vannet Hon Keung Lin
Retailers Announce Some Holiday Specials Wal-Mart – Selling more than 100 toys for $10 or less – Action Figures from Transformers for $8.99 Target – Action Figures from Transformers for $11.99 Kmart – Fab 15 Toy list, price ranging from $10.99 to $99.99
What Consumers Are Doing This Holiday Season Wal-Mart Research: – 55% of shoppers started budgeting for Christmas toy shopping by August. – 70% of consumers are planning on starting holiday shopping before Halloween. – 2 out of 10 will have finished Christmas toy shopping by the time the kids dress up for Halloween.
Christmas in October The reason for such an early shopping season – Start shopping now – No last minute store runs – Take advantage of layaway – Can stretch their holiday dollars
Shopping in a down economy These Announcements happen every year This year more important to Retailers Need to have great prices on hot items Consumers continue to suffer financially – Unemployment – Pay cuts – Retirement funds
Fourth Quarter Retail Sales Huge Quarter because it includes the Christmas shopping season. Economist say, Shopping Season to be Second Worst in 42 years 2009: Flat holiday sales 2008: 4.5% decline last year
What Products Are Suffering The Most Apparel and Accessories – Decline about 2% compared with 9% last year High End Electronics – Decline about 5% compared with 11% last year Most continued decline will be at department stores
Who Will Benefit This Shopping Season Sales at discount department stores – Supercenters and warehouse clubs will increase about 2.5% this year – Good news for Wal-Mart and Target – Small increase of 0.5% from last Christmas shopping season
Questions? Any questions or comments? Do you think anyone can compete with Wal-Mart this year in their toy department? How many of you have started thinking about Christmas shopping already? When is it too early to start advertising Christmas shopping?
Sources 01_walmart_.html / _55a9b883c7 om/2009/03/home- uLYVCwBU/SS8McNUFtnI/AAA blog/media/Radio%2520Shac erence%2520images/Nordstr bextra/content/2008/invest