How to Entice Holiday Shoppers This Year? Set your sights on the affluent ‘heavy-lifters’

What’s your retail marketing strategies for holiday 2015?

Now that the National Retail Federation (NRF) has downgraded its retail forecast for 2015, from 4.1% increase to only 3.5% over 2014, what is your strategy to jump start retail sales this holiday season?
For my money I think holiday 2015 is going to be much tougher than this NRF prediction suggests.  The bellwether I use to predict retail sales trends is that of GAFO stores. GAFO stands for General Merchandise, Apparel, Home Furnishings and Other types of stores, the type of stores that fill the nation’s malls, shopping centers and main streets.  Through May, GAFO stores posted an anemic 1.3% uptick over 2014.
If the rest of the year continues at its current pace, we’ll see only a 1.3% uptick in retail sales over 2014.   To reach even a modest 3% increase by year end, shoppers would have to spend 2.5% more each month through the end of the year.  What’s the chance of that?
GAFO Sales 2007-May 2015

To overcome shopper malaise, retailers need new strategies for holiday 2015, more than having another sale or another deep discounted promotion.  These only invite the wrong type of shoppers to your door, the penny-pinchers looking to save a buck.

Rather you need to entice the right kind of shoppers, the ones with greater shopping needs and deeper pockets with which to indulge themselves when they shop.  That is the affluent shopper!The affluent make an oversized contribution to retailers’ revenues.  They make up only 20% of the U.S. consumer market, but account for 40-50% of all U.S. retail sales.  They are the ‘heavy-lifters’ at retail with discretion to spend.

Attracting more of the high-powered affluent shopper to your shopping experience is your secret weapon to jump start growth in your store, this holiday season and into the future.

 But my store isn’t luxury? 

When people hear ‘affluent,’ inevitably they think ‘luxury.’   But affluent is a demographic (i.e. measure of income of the top 20% which today starts just a shade above $100,000) and luxury is a state of mind.

Affluents shop more and spend more at all different kind of stores, high-end, mid-market and low-end.  Yes, they are the primary target of luxury brands and high-end shopping destinations, especially the top 2-3% with incomes of $250,000+, but the mass-affluent HENRYs (high-earners-not-rich-yet shoppers with incomes $100k-$249.9k) are actively shopping day-in, day-out in all kinds of stores, high, low and in the middle.

Target attracts twice as many affluent shoppers as Nordstrom

For example, about one-third of HENRY affluents shopped in Target in the most recent Unity Marketing Affluent Consumer Tracking Study (ACTS) survey, the market share leader in the mass and traditional department store category, twice as many as the 15% of HENRY affluents who shopped in Nordstrom, the luxury department store leader.

Retailers need to identify consumer segments that offer the most promise and draw them to their shopping experience.  For holiday 2015, and for the next 10 years thereafter, that most promising segment is HENRYs – high-earners-not-rich-yet shoppers, especially those under 45 years with incomes $100,000 to $249,900.

Unfortunately too few retailers understand the needs and desires of the affluent shoppers in their midst, as well as those walking by their door.  A new report from Unity Marketing can fill that knowledge gap.

Unlock your secret weapon to retail success by understanding the affluent shopper

Peter Drucker says, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Unity Marketing’s new study devoted to the shopping habits of the affluent consumer reveals the keys to attracting more affluent shoppers to your special shopping experience.  Entitled Affluent Shopper Report:  The Who, What, Where & Why of Affluent Shoppers,  it examines two years of trends in affluent shopping behavior, showing how they are shopping today and where they will be shopping tomorrow.

The new report provides in-depth statistics about the shopping behavior of both the mass-affluent HENRYs and the Ultra-affluent shoppers at the top.

But more than just data, this report includes analysis about what the key findings mean and how retailers can put the insights into action to more successfully market their stores and reach the affluent shoppers who hold the key to their growth and success.

The Affluent Shopping Report is a comprehensive omni-channel, cross-channel view of the affluent shoppers and right for marketers that need a wide, horizontal view of the affluent shopper landscape, after all this is how today’s omni-channel affluents shop, across channels, looking for the right combination of product selection, quality and price/value.

Retailer Snapshot Reports focus on one type of retailer

But for retailers that compete in a narrow, vertical retail category, one of theAffluent Shopper Snapshot reports  is an essential guide to trends in that special category of retail.

Affluent Shopper Snapshot reports are available for these categories:

If you’d like to learn more about the Affluent Shopping Report or any of the Snaphot reports or how to put affluent consumer insights to work to reach this high-spending shopper, call me at 717-336-1600 or write me, pam@unitymarketingonline.com.