蘑菇AV

While we expect holiday sales to grow a solid 4.8% this year, that spending may well depend on how aggressively the Fed cuts interest rates. In the meantime, retailers may need to lean into discounts and promotions to drive consumers to spend.

Netflix ad-supported tier hits 70 million users: Live sports and exclusive sponsorships boost subscriber growth and advertising revenues.

The details: Amazon will open two new delivery stations in Connecticut ahead of the holiday season, per Chain Store Age.

Prime Day鈥檚 early back-to-school deals can offer insight on the products and categories that might be in high demand later during the holiday season. Takeaway: Speak to consumers鈥� heightened price consciousness and showcase promotions and discounts. Dorm-room ready: Target鈥檚 registry tool allows college students to easily add products to their wish list and share it with their parents.

Last year, Fetch saw redemption of tech and gaming gift cards spike during the holiday season, as well as cash cards and big-box retail cards, according to Schroll. Consumers may use these to treat themselves or to get a little something for everyone on their list without breaking the bank.

Embrace holiday seasons starting earlier. Spirit Halloween began opening its 1,500-plus locations last week, continuing its strategy to lure shoppers in well before fall. Some 43% of US Halloween shoppers begin before October, per the same CivicScience data. Last year, Spirit Halloween held its flagship grand opening on July 29鈥攅arlier than ever before.

Deep discounting, mcommerce remain keys to holiday season success. Methodology: Data is from the February 2024 Merkle report titled "2024 Loyalty Barometer Report." 1,500 US adults 18-65 were surveyed online during October 2023.

Amazon boasted a 鈥渞ecord-breaking鈥� holiday season, with sales volumes at an all-time high. Amazon bested the competition. Its US ecommerce sales grew 11.7% in 2023, 3.6 percentage points higher than the total US ecommerce sales. This marked the first year since 2019 that Amazon significantly outperformed the market. But competitors still threaten Amazon鈥檚 ability to gain market share.

The back-to-school season's performance is seen as an indicator of overall economic health and retail sector strength, potentially setting the stage for a successful holiday season. We forecast that total US holiday retail and ecommerce sales this year will top $1.372 trillion. Integrating online and offline retail channels remains a key priority for maximizing the customer experience.

Walmart+ users tend to drop off after the holiday season, according to our bimonthly survey. In February 2023, 14.3% of respondents had access to Walmart+, down from 22.5% in December 2022. A similar decrease was seen after the 2021 holiday season. Delivery services and QSR restaurants are also competing with retailers for subscription revenues.

Those gains are likely to hold steady as shoppers search for deals during the back-to-school and holiday seasons.

Grocery prices remain front of mind for many consumers: That presents an opportunity for value-oriented merchants such as Aldi, Target, and Walmart to steal share by offering low prices for Thanksgiving staples.

Unlike previous years, Apple didn鈥檛 launch new iPad models before the holiday season, potentially contributing to this decline. Ad ambitions: While no news was announced during its earnings call, Apple is reportedly exploring the development of its own demand-side platform (DSP) which would enable advertisers to purchase digital ad inventory across Apple's suite of services through automated bidding.

That鈥檚 a huge play for Gen Z, which is twice (47%) as likely as the average consumer (20%) to buy holiday gifts via social commerce this year, according to Basis Technologies and GWI. 鈥淎ny time a retailer can make the point of discovery and the point of conversion closer, that's a win,鈥� our analyst Arielle Feger said on a recent episode of 鈥淏ehind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail鈥� podcast. 2. Mars.

Back-to-school season creep: Just as the holiday shopping season has pulled up into October, and the Halloween buying season crept into June, the back-to-school is starting earlier every year. One-third (33%) of US adults expected to begin back-to-school shopping by early July, per a March 2024 survey by LTK.

Scatter market activity will likely increase in Q4 due to last-minute ad buys occurring during the holiday season, she added. Politics will also create 鈥渟ome tightness鈥� with streaming inventory later in the year, Walstad said. The upfronts will outlive linear TV.

It also recently secured the streaming rights to World Wrestling Entertainment and could win rights to two high-profile holiday season NFL matches, which could help draw more ad spending. Our take: Competition in the streaming space has forced CPMs down, which is good news for budget-conscious advertisers. But Amazon and Netflix each have unique benefits.

These highly specific insights can help guide a brand鈥檚 product assortment and pricing strategy, giving them an upper hand during the busy holiday season. 2. Consumers can鈥檛 always tell the difference between content and ads. What鈥檚 unique about a platform like Pinterest is that the interests of users and the interests of advertisers are aligned, said Bushman.

So I would expect that you would see more subscribers around those events, like when the holiday season rolls around, people will subscribe for that football game or when the WWE season is about to kick off, you'll see a bunch of those fans signing up for Netflix. Marcus Johnson (07:50):. Before the boxing match they got Tyson versus Jake Paul November 15th. Daniel Konstantinovic (07:54):.

The same can鈥檛 be said for retailers like Target, which expects demand for discretionary merchandise to remain soft during the holiday season.

And 43% of merchants are ordering less inventory than last year as they prepare for a challenging holiday season. The big takeaway: Retailers can and should prepare for a period of slower, incremental growth that鈥檚 roughly in line with historical norms.

Parks revenues rose 21% to $8.7 billion, and strong box office and Disney+ results for 鈥淏lack Panther: Wakanda Forever鈥� carried Disney through the holiday season. Analyst take: 鈥淒isney shareholders are breathing a sigh of relief after the company posted better than expected quarterly results,鈥� said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Paul Verna. 鈥淏ut there are still big challenges ahead for Disney.

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss how marketers (and consumers) currently feel about brand safety, how publishers are trying to assuage brands鈥� concerns, and what comes after 鈥榖rand suitability鈥�. Tune in to the conversation with Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, our Senior Director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman, Vice President Paul Verna, and co-founder and CEO of Mobian Jonah Goodhart. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

And that's particularly problematic because Q4 of course is the big holiday shopping period where historically brand advertising has played a really big role.