How Retailers Promote Black Friday & Cyber Monday Review of Black Friday & Cyber Monday Promotions December, 2011

What You Need To Know At many key retailers, Black Friday “Door Buster” events started earlier with some stores opening Thursday (Thanksgiving) evening. Black Friday is the top promoted week of the year for many categories. This one week represents 5.0% of annual electronics ads, 4.9% of apparel ads, 5.2% of housewares ads, and 7.1% of toy ads. Kmart ran more Black Friday ads than any other retailer. Kohl’s and Sears rounded out the top 3. While Best Buy ran the most electronics ads for Black Friday, Shopko and Kmart both ran more electronics ads than Target & Walmart. Apparel products represent only 17.0% of circular ads for general merchandise, but lead all segments with 27.2% of retailer web promotions. Meijer ran almost 5 times as many web promotions than the second highest retailer, Best Buy. Over 1/3 of the web promotion ad blocks run by Meijer were for Apparel. 2

RetailerOpening Day/Time 2011Opening Day/Time 2010 Toys R 9:30 10:00 pm 10:00 12:00 am 11:00 4:00 am 12:00 3:00 am Best 12:00 5:00 am 4:00 am JC 4:00 am Kmart 5:00 am (also open 6 am-9 pm on Thursday) 5:00 am Notable Black Friday Opening Times 3

Some of the Black Friday Deals 4 ShopRite 11/26/11 Rite Aid 11/29/11 Hhgregg 11/23/11 Best Buy 11/23/11 Target 11/23/11 Net Price $155

Weekly Share of Weighted Ads - Electronics Source: ECRM, 52 Weeks Ending 11/26/2011 The week of Black Friday represents 5% of annual retail ad support for Electronics – more than 2 times the ads of an average week. 5

Weekly Share of Weighted Ads - Apparel Source: ECRM, 52 Weeks Ending 11/26/2011 6

Weekly Share of Weighted Housewares Ads Source: ECRM, 52 Weeks Ending 11/26/2011 7

Weekly Share of Weighted Toy Ads Source: ECRM, 52 Weeks Ending 11/26/2011 Excludes Toy-R-Us 8

Percent of Promotions By Product Department Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toy-R-Us 9

Percent of General Merchandise Promotions By Product Segment Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toy-R-Us 10

Year/Year Change in Top General Merchandise Segments 11 Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us

Categories with the Most Black Friday Week Promos Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us 12

Year/Year Change in Top General Merchandise Categories 13 Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us

Retailers Running the Most Ads Black Friday Week Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us 14 Ad BlocksWE 11/27/2010WE 11/26/2011Change Kmart Kohl's Sears Shoppers Drug Mart Shopko Stores Big 5 Sporting Goods Best Buy Meijer Macy's Target Stores

Retailer Support of the Apparel Category Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us 15

Retailer Support of the Electronics Category Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us 16

Retailer Support of the Housewares Category Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toys-R-Us 17

Retailer Support of the Toys Category Source: ECRM Week Ending 11/26/2011 vs. Yr. Ago Excludes Unbranded Promos & Toy-R-Us 18

Department Ad Support – Web Promos vs. Circular Promos Source: ECRM Week Ending - 12/3/

Top General Merchandise Segments – Web Promos vs. Circular Promos 20 Source: ECRM Week Ending - 12/3/2011

Top Supported General Merchandise Categories – Web Promos vs. Circular Promos 21 Source: ECRM Week Ending - 12/3/2011

Retailer Web Promo Ad Support 22 Source: ECRM Week Ending - 12/3/2011 Top Meijer Categories CategoryAd Count Apparel1,333 Toys310 Housewares302 Infant Accessories 222 Sports Equipment 196

Top Supported Manufacturers 23 Source: ECRM Week Ending - 12/3/2011 Web PromotionsCircular Promotions Katz Private Brand1Procter & Gamble Company Hewlett Packard2Kohl's Private Brand Dollar General Private Brand 3Nestle S.A. Samsung America Inc.4Unilever Seiko Instruments, Inc.5Mattel Toys Hasbro, Inc.6JCPenney Private Brand Mattel Toys7Sears Private Brand Step 2 Company8Sony Electronics Inc. Little Tikes Co.9Hasbro, Inc. The Coleman Company10Hewlett Packard 7 of the top 10 manufacturers supported by web promotions were electronics or toys.

Apple iPad 24 Micro Center 12/7/11 Target 12/11/11 If you wanted an iPad 2, the lowest price was not on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but a week later at Micro Center ($449.99). Target is only $10 more but you need to spend that $40 savings at Target ($459.99).

Methodology Retail ad support measured by number of ad blocks in retailer print circulars. Ad share is weighted by retailer size. Ad counts include branded & private label products, but not unbranded. Ad circular data includes U.S. & Canadian retailers All traditional grocery retailers have been excluded. ECRM’s MarketGate Ad Comparisons Web Site: Studies on Retail Promotions: Contacts: Scott Whalley Jason Marshall