As summer comes to a close, Christmas in July seems to have taken over many social platforms by displaying heavy discounts with pictures of cooler temperatures and holiday cheer.
According to Forbes, it’s no longer an unofficial holiday that imitates many of the traditions, but it has shifted to serve as the kickoff to preparing for the upcoming holiday shopping season.
As retailers and suppliers gear up for this back to school and holiday season, understanding how inflation may impact consumer spending is critical. Shoppers will pay more attention to value and price, which will lead to a much earlier start in the season to beat price hikes from shortages.
Current Trends
Back to school sales and Amazon Prime Days are both great indicators of how consumers will spend money in the upcoming holiday season and their confidence in the economy.
Early estimates of Prime Day sales by Numerator show that 35% of customers spent more than in prior years – with the average order size at $52.26, up from $44.75 in 2021.
Inflation also impacted the majority of the shoppers with 34% waiting for the sale to purchase a specific item at the discounted price, 28% passing on the deal because it wasn’t viewed as necessity and 22% of individuals looking at prices outside of Amazon prior to buying.
In addition to price sensitivity, consumers also focused purchases towards necessities instead of brand-name electronics and tech products. In years past, top shopped deals were Fire TV Sticks, Apple AirPods and kitchen gadgets like air fryers and fancy mandolin slicers, whereas this year’s best sellers included teeth whitening strips, food, diapers, toilet paper and other household items.
Even though an astounding 300 million items were purchased on Prime Day 2022, consumers are already showing priority to price and need over want, both warnings for the upcoming holiday season.
Increased Levels of Inventory on Hand
With supply chains on the mend, many suppliers have more inventory on hand than they know what to do with and more on the way for the holiday season. The bullwhip effect that we are currently experiencing, as discussed in further detail in our prior blog here, will eventually rebalance by deeply discounting prices to get inventory out the door.
With price sensitive consumers, gradually increasing discounts over the extended holiday season will hopefully lead to a reduction in inventory and a solid holiday season of sales ahead.
Busy Season is Ahead: Simplify Through Automation
With so much inventory on hand and sales having slowed with economic unrest, now is the time to get all systems in order for the upcoming extended holiday season.
Automation through a software solution empowers your eCommerce business to grow to the next level almost instantaneously. Not only does it streamline how your business interacts with retails and online platforms, it executes complex functions on both the front-end and back-end of the business with simplicity. This results in reducing the time to fulfill orders and errors from manually entered data at every single stop in the process.
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As your business prepares for back to school and the upcoming extended holiday season ahead, learn more about how OPAL can streamline your business to efficiently maneuver this season.
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