How Cautious Will Consumers Be This Holiday?
Maybe it’s time to tighten the belt again?
Last week we posted a report that consumers are planning on spending less this holiday season. Now The Conference Board says consumer confidence has dropped in October, which means we may have an even bluer Christmas than expected.
Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, says labor market conditions are playing a major role in this grimmer assessment. Franco says the short-term outlook has also grown more negative: a greater proportion of consumers anticipate business and labor market conditions will worsen in the months ahead.
I don’t know about you, but I tightened my belt again after being a little carefree at the end of the summer. And for me, carefree meant buying a 12-pack of a decent beer instead of a 30 of Miller High Life Light in camouflage cans.
But with the job market still very slim and a lot of companies still still scaling back, that cheap beer is tasting pretty good.
What do you think? Are we overreacting to the job market, or are companies getting ready to hire again? We’re apparently no longer in a recession, but how long will recovery take? And will we ever get back to those happier economic days of 2007?
October 30th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Lets hope consumers arent being conservative this holiday season. As we recall from news reports last year, holiday sales hit an all time low based off previous years outcomes. Though retail stores take quite a hit, so do practices such as mine. The price of health care at this point has rocketed, and I guess what im trying to say here is, no business is safe in these hard times. Businesses are still in a slump or just starting to work their way back out. I think we may start seeing some recover in about 1 to 2 years earliest.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:51 am
While overall sales may be predicted to decline this holiday season, I heard that online sales are expected to grow. Also, more consumers are expected to shop closer to home this holiday season. Research suggests that nearly 80 percent of purchase transactions occur within 15 miles the consumer home or place of work. This means that as consumers search via the medium of their choice, they will still shop locally where they can get hands-on access to the products or services they’re purchasing. Companies should seriously consider a local search marketing strategy this holiday season. Also, more companies are engaging in social marketing, a cost-effective (or sometimes free) strategy, for building brand awareness.