Celebration of Scholars
The Retailing Reality of Holiday Shopping
Name:
Chelsea Niemuth
Major: Finance and Marketing
Hometown: Whitewater, WI
Faculty Sponsor: Colleen OBrien
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis
Funding: N/A
Abstract
Over the years, the retail industry has experienced a large increase in revenue throughout the holiday season due to the marketing efforts and boom of Black Friday. However, in the last decade as trends have changed, retailers are struggling to adapt to the new holiday retailing reality. Retailers in all segments are dealing with intense competition as there are an increasing number of choices where and how consumers can shop. Consumer interest has begun to turn away from Black Friday and lean more towards online shopping and participating in other retail deal days that have emerged, including Thanksgiving. People are also starting their holiday shopping earlier than ever. Retailers are trying to find the right mix of physical and online presence as holiday retail trends change year to year. Therefore, during the holiday season, retailers need to be able to compete in their market segments by adapting new strategies to set themselves apart from competition and keep up with trends. Retailers can do this by focusing on their online sales strategies, assessing the different holiday deal days and selecting ones to focus on based on data and trends, or featuring unique products and adding value to differentiate themselves so that they don’t have to compete solely on price.Submit date: March 19, 2018, 3:25 p.m.