Walmart Jumps Into The Pre-Holiday Fray
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Earlier sales a sign of a shaky holiday market and cautious consumers
Walmart brought the holiday season to customers a month earlier than usual on Friday, November 1st when it launched its online holiday deals. While most retailers traditionally reserve the biggest deals for Black Friday and Cyber-Monday, beginning November 1st, Walmart rolled out seven big deals for customers, including slashed prices on televisions and tablets. In addition, the retailer has plans to offer 300 more deals for the holiday. While Walmart did offer online deals starting on November 1st last year, as well, the special offers were mostly focused on home décor.
According to Joel Anderson, president and CEO of WalMart.com, the company has been planning to introduce the seven big deals early for several months in an effort to help consumers who have been struggling financially because of the weak economy. Similarly, Ravi Jariwala, Walmart’s spokesperson, says the company chose to begin online deals November 1st because Walmart.com generally experience a “spike” in online traffic following Halloween.
Company Focuses On Creating Omni-Channel Experience
For the holiday season, the company is also hoping to draw more shoppers online by offering free shipping on orders of more than $50 on nearly 99 percent of items on the website. These deals further emphasize Walmart’s goal of increasing online sales over the next year. The company expects online sales to increase 30 percent to $10 billion dollars in the current fiscal year. While this is only a small portion of the company’s annual revenue of $486 billion, the company also recognizes the important of giving consumers an omni-channel experience for the holiday, enabling them to make purchases wherever and whenever is best for them.
Walmart’s decision to launch earlier online deals is also closely tied to the fact that many shoppers, according to surveys, plan to have their holiday shopping complete in November. Similarly, because the Internet has also been listed as the top destination for holiday shoppers, many large, discount retailers like Walmart feel it necessary to begin offering deals earlier, Alison Paul, vice chairman at Deloitte says.
Retailers Announce Earlier Deals This Year
Indeed, Walmart has lots of competition this holiday season, with Target, Toys R Us, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and others all announcing special and earlier deals. For example, Target plans to extend its price-match policy for the holidays, while Macy’s and J.C. Penny have announced they will be open on Thanksgiving Day this year to get a jump on sales before Black Friday competition begins.
Toys R Us and Walmart in particular, have been competing since September to secure customer’s sales in the toy market, which is facing “very sobering statistics,” Toys R Us CMO, Richard Barry, says. This holiday season, Toys R Us plans to emphasize the company’s Imaginarium private label in in-store boutiques, increase the number of party goods offered, and open roughly 200 pop-up stores outside existing locations. In order to stake its claim in this competitive toy market, Walmart announced the unveiling of its annual holiday "'Chosen by Kids' top toy list" in September and lowered prices on hundreds of dolls, action figures, and ride-on toys, among others. With the assistance of 1,000 kids ages 18 months to 10 years, Walmart compiled the list of the top 20 toys and made these items eligible for free layaway. The company will also be offering the Ad Match Guarantee for all items — including toys on layaway.
Considering that the holiday shopping season is six days shorter this year than last year and consumer confidence following the government shutdown has been shaken, there is a lot of stake for retailers this year, and especially for Walmart which caters to the low-income shopper. Earlier deals just may be the answer to ensure Walmart captures the attention of early and cautious shoppers in the already crowded market.
Check out this infographic on mobile email startegies for the holiday season.