Shopping Trends

Since Wal-Mart decided to start the holiday season earlier than ever this year - I think the time is right to give you some shopping news & trends:

Trend #1:  Online Shopping is taking off.  If you are selling something, you better sell it online

• Online shopping is expected to increase by 25 percent this year over the last holiday season according to a survey conducted by online loyalty marketer MyPoints.com.  Online retail sales for the fourth quarter of this year will be US$26.2 billion, up 21.9 percent over last year, according to a survey by eMarketer. (Keep in mind that online retail accounts for only 4 percent of the $1.9 trillion U.S. consumers are expected to spend this year, JupiterResearch said. In addition, 35 percent of online consumers have yet to make an online purchase.)
• Eight of the top 10 online shopping sites experienced increased visits in September, with seven posting double digit growth, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  Target led the group with an 81% increase to 15.9 million visits from 8.8 million a year earlier.
• Roughly 10 percent of the world's population - more than 627 million people - has shopped online at least once, according to the research firm ACNielsen.
• Four out of five online Holiday shoppers want free shipping.  According to results of the 2005 Shop.org/BizRate Research Online Holiday Mood Study, this year's most popular online promotion will be free shipping, which 79% of online retailers plan to offer during the holiday season.
• A recent study by Harris Interactive found that 92 percent of shoppers conduct research online before they purchase a product, whether they buy over the Internet or at the store.
• A Consumer Reports reader survey suggests that shopping online might be the smarter choice. As a group, online outlets did a better job overall than brick-and-mortar retailers of satisfying customers when it came to their purchases of televisions, digital cameras, DVD/DVR players, camcorders, handheld computers, or audio equipment, according to more than 18,700 readers surveyed in the spring.
• Take a look at the chart below from the International Council of Shopping Centers - Mall trips have fallen 15 percent to about 2.9 per month from a high of 3.4 per month at its peak four years ago

Mall Visits - 1996-2004

• And now a different kind of mall experience - the virtual mall. In the November issue of Stores magazine, Susan Reda examines  Yub.com - where users can meet, hang and shop:  "Yub.com  (which is “buy” spelled backwards, as well as an acronym for Young Urban Buyer), invites members to shop for more than four million products at some of the best-known retail companies, hang out with friends and discuss trends. Users share product reviews and recommendations with other Yubbers, chatting about pros and cons, fit and features. Instead of making buying decisions based on what retail marketers are saying is the latest, greatest widget or wearable, Yub.com members can read what others in their under-30 crowd have to say about a product."

Trend #2:  Transparency - Be Open -  List your product and prices upfront - or someone else will do it for you.

Shopping Search Portals and Comparison Sites:

• Become.com - Search engine with a large index of material related to shopping, such as buying guides, reviews, articles, specifications, forums, merchants.  You enter a product name or category and select a button marked Shop or Research. Clicking on the former brings up links to vendors; the latter produces links to the most-recent consumer news.
• Cairo - from PC World review:  "Instead of perusing the Internet to find you the best Web prices, Cairo hunts down sales in your local area and tells you where you can find the product you want for cheap. If nothing else, that's a good way for me to find out just how much my local stores are ripping me off."
• ShopLocal.com - compiles products and prices from local brick and mortar retail stores, as well as retailers` online stores -- offering a comprehensive view of what is on sale as well as for sale.
• Yahoo! Shopping - Includes product information, price comparisons and merchant reviews.  Yahoo Shopping now allows users to send product information to their mobile phones. Yahoo Shopping's Send to Phone feature allows consumers to send specific product details, including price, model number and user ratings, to their mobile phone.
• Consumer Guide - from Newsfactor Magazine Online:  "One of the first online shopping-comparison sites remains one of the most reputable.  Consumer Guide is an Internet mainstay, presenting product evaluations in 16 different categories, including appliances, mobile communication, sports and recreation, and television and video."
• mySimon - Comparison shopping site presenting product listings from stores, organized categorically.
• MSN Shopping -  partners with shopping.com to give lots of results.
• Smarter.com - Price comparison site - can help you comparison shop while you're out at stores via its free SMS service. You send a text message with a model name or part number, and the system replies with the lowest online price it finds.
• Shopzilla - Shopping search site with price comparison, reviews and store ratings -  offers details on more than 25 million products from over 45,000 stores. Shopzilla is in a battle with Shopping.com for title of largest comparison shopping site.
• Shopping.com - Compare products, prices and stores.  Recently launched a co-branded comparison site with Paypal - the site will enable buyers to search for products offered by merchants who accept PayPal, allowing them to search via product, shop name or shop type.
• ShoppingSpot - Shopping and consumer information portal that simplifies the search for shopping sites by category, product reviews, comparison shopping sites and coupons.
• Shop.com - comparison site that allows consumers to buy products at Shop.com without going to the retailer’s site
• SortPrice - comparison site with a tool called 'Shop, Drag & Drop'- with it shoppers can create a virtual shopping list just by dragging images like furniture, rugs or even window coverings and view them side by side to simulate a real-life shopping experience.
• ActiveShopper - A web browser add-on that automatically scans, locates and compares prices for any item selected at an e-commerce site. Eliminates price comparison tables and the need to jump from site to site to find the best price.  Last week, ActiveShopper unveiled a Firefox plug-in that lets users search for bargains directly from the open-source browser.
• eBuyingguides.com - Buying guides for over two hundred products, including links to rated shopping sites and articles on how to buy.
• Best Buy Finder: Software - A software program that simultaneously searches the top online comparison shopping sites for the lowest prices.
• PriceGrabber.com - PC World review:  "The site presents information neatly, letting you tab between product details and user and professional reviews. You can even find out about a store's return policy, business hours, and special services by clicking on the Merchant Info link."
• Pricerunner - Originally started in Europe in 1999, PriceRunner launched its U.S. site in April of this year.  Grace Aquino at PC World chose PriceRunner as the 2005 best all-around comparison-shopping site.
• NexTag - Price, tax and shipping comparison site has just launched a service that uses RSS feeds for NexTag search results, providing shoppers with automatic updates of their product or service searches.  Product and seller reviews. Ranked by Inc. magazine as 13th fastest growing company in the country.  From PC World: NexTag offers an interesting tool: a price history chart showing a product's cost over time so you can get an idea of whether you should wait to buy.
• Froogle - Google's product search engine which shows photographs of relevant products. Searches can be restricted by price, type of good, and retailer.

Vertical Search comes to Shopping sites (list not meant to be  comprehensive):

• Aytozon.com - Side by side comparisons of matching items from eBay and Amazon.
• LetsTalk.com - cell phones and rate plans.  Delly Tamer, founder and CEO, says, "...we are also seeing consumers looking to change their handset more often.' That, he noted, is one of the biggest draws to his shopping site. 'It used to be that consumers would upgrade phones every 18 to 24 months. Now they do this more likely once a year,' he said, adding that consumers now are using their cell phones to make a fashion statement.
• BuyGREATShoes.com - self-explanatory
• CNET Shopper - Searches for the lowest prices on computers, software, office products and electronics.
• PriceWatch - Searches for the lowest prices on computers, computer components, software and electronics.
• Fatlens - originally focused on finding tickets to events - "from greenday to greenbay."  Last month, fatlens expanded into six new categories popular with holiday shoppers.  The new categories include jewelry, shoes, clothes, electronics, luggage and accessories
• African-American Shopping Today - provides access to websites that sell African American related products
• OffTheHookSports.com just announced a Comparison Shopping Challenge with NFLShop.com, NFL.com NBA.com, MLB.com, NHL.com and NASCAR.com for Clothes, Jerseys and Gifts
• Best Web Buys - Comparison shopping services for books, bikes, music and videos.
• StreetPrices - PC component, PDA, and digital camera price index with graphs of prices over time. Includes e-mail alerts when an item drops below the price specified.
• AimLower - Compares prices on computers, electronics, appliances, video games from many stores.
• ShoppingAisles.com - Compare prices on music, DVDs, VHS, books, magazines and video games.
• DVD Price Search - Compares DVD prices from multiple stores.
• Loose Diamonds search engine - comparing diamonds -  site gives details such as carat weight, cut grade, color, clarity, dimensions and of course prices, gives the searcher a side by side comparison of diamonds available from around the Web.  For all of us who wondered how we were going to find those loose diamonds we've wanted for so long.

Trend #3:  Consumers increasingly trust and turn to other consumers to find out the truth about products and services

• The Pew Internet & American Life project found that 33 million U.S. Internet users have reviewed or ranked someone or something as part of an online rating system.
• According to comScore, four of the Top 5 retail Web sites -eBay, Amazon, Target and Shopping.com - allow customers to post product reviews.  The fifth, Wal-Mart, does not.
• A recent New York Times article on these citizen reviewers: "...some spend the equivalent of a full- or part-time job on their work. But they are not professionals, although some earn significant money and perks. They are hobbyists who congregate on sites that offer maximum exposure for their reviews, coupled with a community of reviewers like themselves, at sites like Amazon and Epinions."
• Shopzilla receives over 1 million consumer reviews of its merchants monthly.
• Other review sites include - Consumer Reviews.com,

Trend #4:  Shopping is an Experience, it's a Lifestyle, it's Entertainment, it's News

Shopping as Experience

• October issue of Chain Store magazine (partial copy of article) - "Retailers are focusing on sensory merchandising," said Brian Dyches, president and CEO of brand management/design consulting firm Atmospheric Group Inc., Laguna Niguel, Calif. "They need to recognize the five senses...Smell is continuing to be adapted. Humans can detect 10,000 distinct scents. It's a great emotional tie to something nostalgic. Gift retailers use hot apple cider in the fall and winter months," Dyches added. This yields a sales lift of 10% to 15%, he said.
• TRYVERTISING - via Customer World blog - "When experience is becoming more important than messages"  (for more see Trendwatching newsletter)

• Virgin Megastore in Manhattan promises it's customers an "emotionally exciting" shopping experience - that includes 150 Virgin Vault Kiosks which give shoppers the ability to sample more than 250,000 CDs, 11,000 DVDs and 7,000 games.  Through the use of the scanning, browsing and recommendation kiosks, Virgin is placing an emphasis on helping its customers to try before they buy almost any product.
• Wired Magazine said Tuesday that it plans to open a retail location in the Soho District of Manhattan, which would stay open from November 18 through December 24. Get up-close with 65 of the latest gadgets and technology products.  After customers buy their items, Wired will ship them directly to customer homes.  And to add to this unique experience, on the weekends customers will also receive free shuttle service to their next destination in Wired Volkswagens.  (In related Wired news, Wired Magazine's second annual gadget issue, Test, features all of the techie publication's faves, from MP3 players to LED flashlights.)
• Gift Cards are expanding from the basic department store to all sorts of places: Bob Skiba, executive vice president with Stored Value Systems (SVS), a supplier of gift cards told CNN , "In five years we've gone from 1,500 locations to 75,000 locations outside of malls, department stores and specialty stores that also sell gift cards," Skiba said. "We're working with spas, restaurants and convenience stores. With this phenomenal growth, we're producing 25 percent more cards than we were for the same time last year."

Shopping as Lifestyle

• Growth of Lifestyle Centers - According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, the term is largely defined by two criteria: an open-air configuration; and at least 50,000 square feet of space occupied by upscale national chain specialty stores. Most lifestyle centers are located in affluent neighborhoods in or near major metropolitan markets, but they are spread throughout the country.  Kathy Deane, president of Tobe, a New York-based retail consultancy, told Brandweek (sub. req.), "Consumers want to shop in a place that addresses their whole lifestyle needs, from medical to cultural and more," said Deane. "One thing I love about lifestyle centers is their cafe-like settings."
• In September, Whole Foods opened its first "Lifestyle" Store in Los Angeles - While some Whole Foods food stores are about 50,000 square feet, the new lifestyle store will be far smaller, but will have a wide array of earth-friendly products.  The lifestyle store will offer products such as organic blue jeans, recycled handbags and paint that is free from potentially harmful compounds. The Edun Clothing line by U2 lead singer Bono will be sold at the store along with organic, sweatshop free t-shirts from American Apparel. A selection of world music and collections of sustainable living books and magazines will also be available. (also see Trend #5 below)
• Home Shopping Network - St. Petersburg Times (11/2/05) - "The network has been testing sales pitches and building sets to sell the more lifestyle-oriented lines - many of them aimed at more upscale, adventurous customers who travel a lot - which include TravelSmith, Front Gate, Ballard Design, Garnet Hill and Smith & Noble."
• From Chain Store Age magazine - Outdoor sporting-goods retailer Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) has the advantage of advocating a "lifestyle." Serious enthusiasts of outdoor activities such as camping, hiking and fishing, use REI as their headquarters. REI offers customers a chance to get even more involved by paying a small one-time fee to join its cooperative program. "Our store philosophy is based on what the customer wants the experience to be, the services to be, the product mix to be and the staff expertise to be," said REI director of retail operations, Tim Spangler. "As a member organization, we have a large group of vocal customers who will tell us what they like, don't like, or think is missing.

Shopping as Entertainment & News
Television Shopping

• QVC -  In a recent article, Business 2.0 said, "QVC is earning a place in the pantheon of the world's most successful and innovative retailers. Last year QVC rang up $5.7 billion in sales and $760 million in operating profit, making the Liberty Media subsidiary nearly as big and roughly twice as profitable as Amazon.com.  Its 13 percent operating margin beats those of brick-and-mortar heavyweights such as Federated Department Stores, Target, and Wal-Mart. The quarter ending in August was another blockbuster, with sales up 15 percent over the same period in 2004. Although QVC sells no advertising, it is the third-largest U.S. broadcaster in terms of revenue (behind NBC and ABC), and its sales and profits are larger than those of all other TV-based retailers combined.
• Home Shopping Network (HSN) - Tampa Tribune reports: "For two years, HSN has been reinventing itself, refining everything from onscreen graphics to customer service. More than ever HSN is banking on refined and famous personalities to sell more diverse and upscale products and win back customers from the industry giant QVC. HSN racked up 2004 sales of $1.9 billion..."   The New York Times said, "Shopping shows on the HSN channel, once associated with appliances, jewelry and cosmetics (as at top left), will take a turn toward high-end home decorating in October, when hourlong programs begin hawking the wares of the Garnet Hill catalog. The shows -- with child actors, lush interiors and rigorous discussions of such consumer concerns as the difference between sateen and percale -- will run not just during the day but in prime time."
• USA Network just completed the first season of a six part series, Made in the USA -  People magazine called the show " ... a cross between Thomas Edison and Christopher Guest: There's something winningly dorky about the competitors--average-Joe inventors and tinkerers, some of whom seem to be blinking at the light after emerging from too much time at a garage workbench. The [prize is the chance] to pitch the product on the Home Shopping Network."

Magazines dedicated to shopping:

• Lucky -  from Style Station blog: "...the first trend-setting magazine in this genre. A magazine geared primarily towards women, Lucky's editorial mission states,'the best to buy in fashion, beauty and living- the voice of a friend you love to take shopping.'  Lucky magazine has absolutely no features, no celebrity endorsements, no name-dropping. And American women accepted it well.
• Cargo- a Lucky for men. With slick photography, sharp insight and an editorial voice that speaks to the readers- Cargo too, like Lucky is slowly taking over the market.
• Domino - the shopping magazine for your home.
• Shop Etc - a magazine about shopping for women covering fashion, home and beauty.  From Larry Dobrow, MediaPost Magazine Rack - It's an impressive publication. As opposed to their competitive brethren, the minds behind SHOP Etc. have created an organizational framework that makes sense. For each of three shopperrific categories--fashion, home and beauty--the mag presents a fold-out directory (akin to a Bloomingdale's in-store floor plan), a few themed pages of products its editors dig, a brief Q&A with the director of the particular category, and selections from experts in the field.
• Best - mature men’s technology-skewed magazine
• StarShop - coming soon from the folks at Star magazine - this magazine merges two  of our loves - celebrities and shopping
• Bundle -  shopping for "you and baby from pre to three."

Newspapers are beginning to cover shopping via blogs:
The Media Center's blog - Morph - recently posted about how some newspapers have weblogs with shopping as the content - "Sometimes we downplay the "information" aspects of being a "news and information" medium. Let's not forget that our readers use the web for shopping..."

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch - ShopTalk - addresses issues such as what to wear to a wedding, special shoes for driving, and online bargains.
• The Oregonian - Window Shop - focuses on "what's hot in retailing, about how certain news events affect retailers and shoppers alike, about any tricks out there that smart consumers should be aware of..."
• Greensboro (NC) News-Record - Bargain Blog - It began in April with a mission of finding "mind-blowing deals."
• Houston Chronicle - Shop Talk - Heather Staible shares her expertise and enthusiasm for shopping. "I will slip into the backrooms of neighborhood boutiques, well-known department stores and out-of-the-way shops to find out about great sales, store openings and must-attend events for any self-respecting fashionista."

Trend #5:  Shopping for a Better World - Go Green

• A survey commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream found 91% of college students and 88% of their parents saying “they would be likely to purchase environmentally friendly products if they were available at stores they shopped at.”
• Environmental News Network reports that "Retailers are among the busiest builders on the American landscape, and they receive criticism for everything from the style of the structures to the traffic they attract. Driven by a mix of reasons from public relations to saving money to a desire to be more responsible, a growing number are experimenting with more environmentally sensitive and energy efficient stores."
• alonovo.com - launched in August, this online information and shopping service has "...married socially responsible business ratings from a respected investment advisory firm with the products sold on Amazon.com, allowing you to view the full Amazon universe -- books, music, cameras, toys, jewelry, electronics, and all the rest -- through a socially responsible lens."
• GoToReviews - track the latest recommendations, with a focus on well-designed and energy efficient products.
• idealswork - rates companies and brands, not products.  Idealswork allows you to choose the social criteria that concern you -- from environmental and workplace concerns to animal rights and gay/lesbian issues.
• There are any number of blogs pushing green/sustainable products and lifestyle. Treehugger, City Hippy (with its del.icio.us list of green shopping sites), eco.psfk.com (eco trends/brands),  Hippy Shopper, greatgreengoods.com and The Lazy Environmentalist are some of the best.

Comments

[myhomefitnessreview]

www.myhomefitnessreview.com strives to be the best source for home exercise equipment reviews.

[JACS]

We are specialized in selling brand name shoes and clothes for men and women. All you can get is brand name items such as jordan shoes, nike, prada, puma, adidas, gucci, air max, abercombie and finch, channel, a bape star, etc

www.transitfashion.com

[Dave]

Good information on shopping trends. I wonder how this affected old navy goods as i know they had a busy holiday season

old navy coupons

[Alice]

Well our website loose diamonds reviews has seen a 25% increase in diamond sales compared to last year. The internet retail segment is really set to boom.

[Discount Bistro eBay Store]

I certainly hope shopping online increases in the near future as I have yet to see a profit from my online business... LOL. But it is difficult to drive and increase traffic to your online store. Not even spending money on advertising, marketing or outside agencies to aid can guarantee you any kind of traffic. Just work, work, work and keep trying to per-fect and correct your website till maybe someday... traffic spirals upward and turns your money pit into a a profitable online business. Ahh only time shall tell.

[Avnish Saxena]

www.SmarterDeals.com is a leading price comparison website created with keeping the Computer and Electronics shoppers in mind. Here, Shoppers can search, compare, and save on popular Computer Hardware, Software, and Electronic products.

In addition to a highly targeted price comparison site, www.SmarterDeals.com offers Daily Deals. Within this section, savvy shoppers can find the latest product rebates, coupons, and deals offered by multiple merchants.

Moreover, www.SmarterDeals.com has made it simple for merchants to join and post their entire catalog for shoppers to search and compare prices. Merchants can login and submit their data feed including detailed pricing information that is updated daily.

Last but not least, www.SmarterDeals.com is a price comparison engine to compare price for Computer Hardware, Software, Electronics, Digital Camera, Camcorder, Camcorder Accessories, Computer Cables and Accessories, Games, Xbox 360, DVD Player, Cellphone Accessories, GPS, GPS Accessories, Video Recorder, Notebook Accessories, Flash Memory & Readers, Motherboard Accessories, PDA Accessories.

[Christina Lamano at Discount Bistro eBay Store]

Informative

[michael jones]

Online shopping is a large industry and will grow bigger and bigger. Sales increase people become much happier and satisfied. I am shopping online almost every day. A nice post and a great information.

[guy]

Very interesting blog, I must give credit as myself an online persian rugs store can vouch to say that almost any product can be sold online. At least within the last 2 years an increase of 23% has been our avarage.

[steven davies]

Really interesting article.A product can survive a review like this because consumers are starting to believe each other more than they believe authorities. If Zune gets a 4.1 out of 5 rating on the Circuit City website -- even if that was based on 2 inputting consumer reviews -- it may hold more weight in a purchase than this review, which a consumer may never even see. Now THAT's the power of word of mouth.

[Cara Fletcher]

Very interesting article.It's true that online shopping is becoming veyr famous through people and they use it very often.It has many advantages that the normal shopping doesn't have and would never have like quckness and better prices.

[Price Comparison Shopping]

Great article with good stats. With gas prices high it makes good sense to buy online with all the free shipping offers.
Thanks

[Jim Duffy]

www.ShopWiki.com covers all the stores on the internet - over 160 million products from 120,000 stores... not big on traffic yet, but does for online shopping what google did for search. including using crawlers.

[jackie]

We are increasingly working with other vendors who sell our products online. Each has their own online store and back-end fulfillment process - either via their warehouse or ours, which is making our data management, accounting and fulfillment processes increasingly cumbersome. Having them use a source code that links to our store is not a viable option, since they want their visitors to have a single-source experience, a la Amazon.
Have any of you solved this problem? What are the logistics you have set up?

[Cell Phones and Plans]

Cell Phones and Plans are available online at YouNeverCall.com

[Industrial Directory]

They have proven that people will buy Christmas stuff as soon as it is put out. Why not start the season earlier and earlier? Personally I prefer one holiday at a time.

[Mack Collier]

Nellie CNBC ran a story on online shopping yesterday, and they showed a chart where online spending had increased every year since I believe 2001 by a steady 20-25% per year. This almost inversely corresponds with the chart you posted on falling mall visits in the same time frame.

Good stuff, and very timely.

[Jinal Shah]

Just followed the track-back..
an excellent blog with precise reporting. Just spent an hour on your blog.. and love it!