Tag Archives: Holiday Shopping

From Spooky to Merry: Spirit Halloween’s Festive Transformation into Spirit Christmas

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Spirit Halloween, the seasonal retailer famous for its Halloween pop-up stores, is now moving into the Christmas market with a pilot program of 10 “Spirit Christmas” stores. This strategic expansion aims to capitalize on the lucrative holiday shopping season, which saw an estimated $964 billion in consumer spending last year. The company started with a flagship store in Mays Landing, New Jersey which opened on October 18 and will be opening additional stores in November across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

By transforming vacant storefronts and applying their successful pop-up store model, Spirit aims to create a distinctive holiday shopping destination that stands out in the competitive Christmas market. The company stated, “we’re hopeful it will resonate with our customers. Our goal is to create a festive retail experience that captures the spirit of the season, much like we do for Halloween.”

The new Spirit Christmas stores will offer a wide range of holiday merchandise including decorations, apparel, inflatables, stocking stuffers, and gifts. To enhance the customer experience, the stores will also incorporate unique, immersive elements such as a life-sized gingerbread village, a North Pole letter-writing station, and photo opportunities with Santa Claus.

This venture marks a significant opportunity for Spirit Halloween to diversify its revenue streams and extend its operational calendar beyond the Halloween season. By leveraging its expertise in temporary retail spaces and seasonal merchandising, the company is well-positioned to compete in the crowded holiday market. The success of this pilot program could potentially lead to a broader rollout in future years, marking Spirit Halloween as a major player in the seasonal retail industry.

Survey Shows Shoppers More Tight-Fisted This Holiday Season

Consumerism, Lifestyle, ,

According to a survey conducted by Triton Digital, this year’s holiday season shoppers are searching for deep price cuts on their purchases and are planning on spending less this year than in other years. They are striving to avoid the use of their credit cards, too.

Spending Less and Using Cash

The survey questioned over 47,000 consumers from North America during the month of November. The results showed that 61.5 percent are planning to spend less than they did last year on gifts, while 16.3 percent said that they are not planning on giving gifts at all this year.

Fifty-two percent of those interviewed also said that they are planning on using cash exclusively to pay for the gifts they buy, while 14.5 percent are going to use a “layaway” plan in order to spread out the cost of their purchases over time.

Bargain Hunters on the Prowl

The quest for a good deal is also taking on a more important part of the shopping experience, with 34.3 percent planning to go shopping on Black Friday. Twenty-two percent are planning to check for discounts and special deals in order to pay less.

Despite the difficult times, about 51.6 percent of consumers are still planning on giving to charities, while 9.8 percent said they will be making all their holiday purchases on-line.  Gift cards will be bought by about 26.1 percent of consumers, according to the survey.

Staying Home, Too

The Triton survey also asked if consumers are planning on taking a vacation, or traveling this holiday season. Only 7.4 percent answered in the affirmative, the vast majority saying that they are planning on staying home with their immediate families instead.

“It’s clear that consumers are looking for deals this holiday season, through both traditional means like in-store Black Friday shopping and new channels like daily deal sites,” said Chris Bell, president of Triton Digital Applications and Services. “There is a huge opportunity here for brands and media companies to offer incentives, deals and rewards for loyalty to capitalize on this consumer trend.”

‘Tis the Season – for Holiday Electronics Shopping

Consumerism, , ,

With Halloween in the past and Thanksgiving on the way, can the season of gift-shopping be far behind?

In fact, that shopping-for-gifts season has arrived even earlier this year, after retailers began offering discounts weeks before earlier than usual. Discounts on merchandise usually begin on the now-traditional Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving. However, worry about maintaining shopping levels in the wake of the still depressed economy induced retailers to begin their sales weeks in advance.

Shoppers responded to these early discounts by beginning their shopping early, and, according to a new survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association, what they are shopping for in increasing numbers are electronic gifts. Consumer plan to spend more on electronics this holiday season than they have during any of the past seventeen years, and laptops and Apple iPads and iPods are the number one gift items for the year, the poll showed. Nearly 3 out of 4 American adults are planning electronic gifts this year, an increase from 67% last year. This increase is despite the approximately 2% fall in overall gift spending that is expected during this year’s holiday season.

In the wake of the early-season discounts, the Consumer Electronics Association trade group increased its projections for fourth-quarter electronics sales and is now predicting shipments of 10.74 million TVs, 14.32 million digital cameras, 18.24 million video game units and 12.88 million MP3 players during the fourth quarter of 2010.