CSA Q&A: Holiday success depends on supply chain, discounts, safety

Retailers seeking a happy holiday season need to get customers products quickly and safely, at a good value.

Dora Bock, associate professor of marketing in Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business, recently shared some thoughts on how retailers can attract holiday shoppers during this unusual season.

What special incentives would you recommend retailers offer consumers to choose their product for online purchases?
There's going to be a push or a lot of value, I would say, for consumers in the shipping of the purchases. So, those incentives that can exercise free shipping or those that can emphasize deals associated with buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store, any way to sort of help or make the customer feel safe, are likely going to be successful.

How might Cyber Monday play into things?
Cyber Monday is going to play a huge role. People are certainly more comfortable with shopping online. This pandemic has shifted people into shopping from the convenience of their home and has certainly increased the number of online shoppers. In terms of sales, e-commerce is expected to be up or higher than last year. It’s estimated to be around $10 billion for Cyber Monday, which is a little higher. The increase is smaller than in the past, but this year carried a lot of uncertainty with it.

There are other changes that retailers are spreading out their holiday deals this year. For instance, traditionally it's been that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two distinct days, but now, we've seen that this year there's been more pre-Black Friday sales, which have already started. Amazon's annual Prime Day was typically in July. It was pushed to October of this year.

For many individuals, that Prime Day in October was the launch of the holiday season. To no surprise, if you look at some of the retailers, they're already saying that they're giving away Black Friday deals. Target, for instance, has already been offering new Black Friday deals weekly. Many stores have already just planned to space out the sales throughout the holiday season, rather than just rely or focus on those two days. The idea is that those two days are really getting blurred together now.

What types of retailers have an added advantage during the 2020 holiday season?
They would be retailers that can make customers feel safe and who have strong supply chains. And by that, I mean, they have the ability to ship the product to the consumer and do so in a cost-efficient way. It ultimately comes down to those retailers that can quickly fulfill orders and ship them to consumers.

So, it's all about quick fulfillment and shipping. Also, offering a decent return policy in which if the size doesn't fit or the shoe doesn't fit, that they can easily return it. That's why Nordstrom, which has one of the most lenient return policies, tends to score highly on the customer satisfaction index.

What types of retailers might be at a disadvantage?
These would be retailers that cannot provide a safe shopping experience for consumers and retailers that have not adapted to providing curbside pick-up or other means of delivery than the traditional in-store shopping experience.