Christmas trees set up alongside harvest wreaths and untouched rows of Halloween costumes in stores tell the story of 2020.
It's a seasonal mashup because this year — as no one needs to be reminded — is the year everything went into a blender.
COVID-19 changes everything from traditions and timing to habits and the way people will prepare for the holidays. It's pushing Christmas shopping earlier than ever before.
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• Christmas promotions will start in October. Target, Walmart and Best Buy announced they'll start holiday sales earlier than ever. Retailers want to generate sales, but at the same time will spread promotions out to avoid social distancing problems in stores.
Many things are taking place:
Best Buy closed down stores in the pandemic. People kept shopping - CNN
The Massive Holiday Shopping Season Draws Near and Preparation is Key to Success
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. , Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Urtasker knows that with less than 60 days until black Friday, the time for preparation to truly thrive during the 2020 holiday shopping season will soon eclipse. COVID-19 has changed the face of so many consumer habits and holiday shopping is slated to be one of them.
While the demand for convenient, e-commerce transactions have been rising over the past several years, the shift in consumer habits is likely to fuel and benefit online retailers. However, preparation is always prudent, and to optimize the potential for critical market share and increased revenues, preparation may indeed be the epicenter of success during the 2020 holiday season.
Amazon Explore Debuts Virtual Tours, Shopping | PYMNTS.com
Amazon is launching a new feature called Amazon Explore for virtual tours of real places one can take without leaving the house, according to a post on the company's website.
The eCommerce giant said in the post that Amazon Explore works by connecting a user one-on-one with a host, allowing the host to take the user on a virtual tour of a place. The user doesn't have to be on camera. The tours include categories like cultural landmarks, learning and creativity for things like cooking or tie-dyeing, and shopping at boutique markets and other places.
Quite a lot has been going on:
How the Pandemic is Creating New Traditions for Holiday Shopping – NBC4 Washington
It's a Black Friday tradition for many families: waiting in line for hours outside your favorite store to be the first to run through the doors and cash in on holiday deals. But with concerns about social distancing, retailers are offering holiday deals early this year, hoping to thin out the crowds.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is starting a new campaign to encourage consumers to "Shop Safe, Shop Early." 50% of shoppers the NRF surveyed say they plan to shift more of their shopping online this year than last year. The NRF says shopping early helps support retail workers and your community.
Pinterest expands ad inventory among shopping features | Mobile Marketer
Pinterest is expanding its ad offering, adding shopping features in the U.K. and rolling out new conversion measurement tools as mobile marketers prepare for a holiday shopping season that likely will rely on e-commerce because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pinterest has added more shopping-related features in the past few years to help convert its passive users into active customers. Pinterest this year started letting people shop for products they find with its Lens visual search tool that uses image-recognition technology to identify objects with a smartphone camera. The company in April unveiled the "shop" tab to help people find in-stock products from text searches.
Business experts: Shopping has become a social activity amid pandemic | WPRI.com
CRANTSON, R.I. (WPRI) ─ Business experts that spoke to 12 News say shoppers aren’t heading back to malls for a pair of pants or shoes, but for deeper reasons.
Johnson & Wales Associate Marketing Professor Diane McCrohan said she isn’t surprised by the increase in retail shopping over the past couple of months, because shopping during a pandemic has become a feel-good activity.
She said even her mother, who’s 80 years old, went shopping as soon as she was allowed to again because “she’s determined to still have social contact and she enjoys it.”
Holiday Shopping 2020: What Do Customers Want? – WWD
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