Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Holiday Shopping Trends


The holiday season is finally here!! With the new winter season, comes new gift ideas, and lots of new holiday trends! At this time of month, it is estimated that most shoppers will do their buying online using their smart phones to detect the sales and compare prices for the best deals. More consumers are looking for a good value for all of their holiday shopping.  The economy has many retailers thinking outside the box this holiday season in order to get people to shop in stores and not online.  Stores in the mall are using large displays and bright colored signs to catch your eye and bring people in from the outside. In Fayette mall some noticeable holiday shopping trends are creative ads, promotions and sales. 
Lots of stores have stands that have the words FREE or SALE in bold, that catch the consumers eye when they are walking by.  Putting these signs up gives the stores an opportunity to showcase all the sales they have available.  Wet Seal did a great job of stationing their signs in the middle of the doorway so that customers walking in have to walk by it.  A lot of businesses will be selling the same holiday products for the Christmas season and need ways to set themselves apart from everyone else in order to gain sales.  In Express they put a sign in the middle of the doorway along with one in their window display and inside their store. Their glitter Christmas decorations were also a fantastic eye catcher for consumers passing by. Every consumer likes a good sale, so by displaying it in the front window of stores it gets people into their stores.

Dear Santa...


Even though many college students are a little too old to be writing letters to Santa, many still make a mental list of what they would love to see under their tree on Christmas morning. The past years have seen a rise in handcrafted gifts, since many students have been on a tight budget. While the economy is starting to look up, this trend is still pretty popular for this season. For those times when you are walking around campus and get a little thirsty, what is a better companion than a nice personalized tumbler? Another good idea would be a decorated ornament or ceramic tile capturing a fun memory with you and a friend. However, for guys getting a tumbler or ornament probably wouldn’t go on the top gifts received that year. Now a warm plate of fresh baked cookies might just do the trick! It is expected this year that we will see a huge rise in baked goods as gifts. After all, they say the quickest way to someone’s heart is through their stomach.
While homemade gifts are still a good choice, this year we will see the comeback of discretionary gifts. With the economy starting to look up, who wouldn’t want to splurge on their loved ones? The more popular gifts include the new E-Readers like the Amazon Kindle and Nook Tablet. For the college freshman new to town, what better gift to see under the tree than a new Garmin or TomTom to make sure they never get lost. And of course the newest IPad, IPhone, or IPod would make the top anyone’s list. But in the end, you can never go wrong with a gift card!