Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

Thoughts on Cyber Monday and the Rest of the Holiday Season

Cyber Monday, albeit with conflicting statistics, seems to have outperformed 2007.  comScore has stated that sales were 15% better. Nielson claims that shopping sites within its retail index saw 10% increased traffic from last year. It did say that top 500 retail sites were down 1% of traffic though. Among the winners seems to have been Amazon, which saw a 21% year over year growth in traffic, and according to Hitwise had 10.77% off all US traffic on Cyber Monday.

So is the 2008 Holiday retail sales doomed as predicted or has Cyber Monday shown a silver lining? I don’t envision death to retail but then again I also don’t see a Holiday season of anything better than flat growth. According to comScore, the Holiday Shopping is down by 2% overall including Cyber Monday.  As consumers become more Internet savvy, I’m really not surprised that overall internet traffic has picked up.  But I think most of this traffic growth is due to media’s influence of reporting huge deals by struggling retailers and consumers willingness to scour for deals and coupons.

Most of the deals this Holiday season seem to be 20% or 25% off with free shipping for Internet retailers. There seems to be a proliferation of these deals that are being remarketed as something new every week.  Not a bad option for those new 2009 clothing lines, sporting goods, or small electronics.  However, if you are in the market for anything larger, like the flat screen TV that I’m waiting for, I would be holding tight and waiting for the January clearance.

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A Look at Facebook Apps

I’m on Facebook much like many of my peers and former colleagues.  It offers all the benefits of a social network - the ability to post pictures, comment on each other’s profiles, and see who knows who.  It attracts plenty of traffic due to the interactive nature of the content.  As a marketer, I am instantly interested in it due to its captive audience, high level of interaction, frequency of user visits, and ability to potentially target specific segments. 

One element I don’t truly understand is if Facebook Applications or Widgets really hold any value for marketers.  For Fortune 500 companies, I see some obvious benefits including branding, increased touch points, and creating deeper interaction with consumers.  However, the challenge is creating applications that fit with your brand and are interesting enough for people to want to add the application.  A good example of this is TripAdvisor’s “Cities I’ve Visited” Application.  It fits well with the branding of TripAdvisor.com (that being offering travel advice, reviews, and forums) and it is interesting enough that people would add the application (always interesting to see where people have traveled to).  However the application has a bit under 54,000 daily active users as of today, which is only 1% of the Facebook population.

Most popular applications are not done by Fortune 500 companies but rather by small start-ups or individuals.  Some popular ones include SuperWall, Flixster, Slide, Scrabulous to name a few.  I can see a couple of potential revenue streams that many are utilizing today - online advertising (banner and text ads) and affiliate referral commissions.  I’ve also seen merchandise being sold based off application characters like (Fluff)Friends and can see the potential for using an application as a lead generation tool to other games/programs/services a developer might sell outside of Facebook. 

In my opinion, the problem with these applications are the stickiness and loyalty of its user base.  I feel that popular applications one month quickly fizzle out to the next application the next month.  It’s almost like what’s the current flavor of the month?  Amongst my friends alone, I’ve seen mass interest jump from Scrabulous to (Fluff )Friends to Who Has The Biggest Brain? over the past 2-3 months alone.  Looking at applications from the business side, I question how much money should be invested in creating these applications.  There’s definitely alot of buzz surrounding applications and widgets but I’m not totally convinced that the buzz is actionable.

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Wal-Mart Announces Price Cuts

The Fed had another rate cut this morning.  Will Wal-Mart do the same?  Last week, Wal-Mart annouced that it was cutting grocery prices some 10-30% in order to help consumers get excited about shopping again.  Just in time for the Superbowl, this smells alot like good ‘ol fashion marketing and promotions.  Known for Everyday Low Prices, Wal-Mart continues to build on its brand image as a low cost leader for the typical American family.  It also gets alot of free press by playing off of the Fed Rate Cuts.  Free, positive news when recession looks loomingly close is great, but will it bring the shoppers out?  I’m not sure if I would make an extra trip out to Wal-Mart but when I’m buying chips and sodas for the NY Giants victory  (ahem, cough, cough) this weekend, it’s definitly top of mind….and that’s exactly what Wal-Mart wants. 

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Harry Potter is like Crack

I, like 8.3 million other people, have purchased the final Harry Potter book.  I didn’t pre-order the book because I knew what the book would mean — baggy eyes and a tired spirit due to late-night reading.  However, after passing by a Border’s on Saturday night, there they were…stacks and stacks of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It was on sale and too tempting to resist.

As predicted, I spent last night reading into the wee hours of the morning.  It’s always doable to read “just one more chapter.”  I also know that tonight I’m back in for more.  Harry Potter is how all products should be.  One that delivers as promised and one that makes consumers come back wanting for more.

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