Retailers Take The Offers Off The Table In October
Posted on 6 November 2008 by Loch RoseNo Comments
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Loading ...If you threw a party, and not many people came to it, you’d probably throw a smaller party next time. That’s the principle that many of the nation’s leading retailers followed in October.
Last week, I described how ShopLocal can track the number of offers that retailers are extending to consumers in their weekly print and online circulars. In September, despite the gathering gloom in the economy, retailers extended 13% more offers on average than a year ago, but consumers failed to respond. Now that October’s results are in, we know that retailers reacted by putting fewer offers on the table (or at least in the circular).
Monthly data show that October’s average offers per store actually decreased from September, the exact opposite of the pre-holiday increase we’d typically see:
So it’s no surprise that the year-over-year trend for October was -5%:
The two big contributors were Department Stores and Mass Merchandisers, which fell from a +27% year-over-year trend in September to 0% (no change) in October, and Home and Garden, which fell from +4% in September to -38% in October:
In fact, only the Food and Drug segment showed stronger year-over-year growth in October than in September.
Are the retailers giving up on attracting consumers through deals, or simply saving their firepower until later in the season? Some retailers are already jumping in with holiday offers, though consumers report that they plan to spend less than last year, and Forrester predicts relatively slow growth online. Stay tuned as we continue to track offers and deals this month, with the holidays looming ever closer.
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