Forecast Final Christmas Results Now
Early holiday 2006 results are in…which means you should be able to accurately predict your final results through year-end. By doing so now, you can tweak your marketing and merchandising if necessary to meet your year-end sales and profit numbers.
The basic tool to forecast your results from your holiday catalogs is an accurate response curve. The best holiday curve to use is last year’s actual holiday response curve, assuming your mail dates were roughly the same. So if last year your holiday catalog mailed on Nov. 10 and sales were 30% complete as of Dec. 1, you can use that response curve to project this year’s final sales. If your mail dates changed significantly from last year, however, you need to estimate a response curve based on your best guess using last year’s holiday response curve.
Tactics
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NewsSurvey: 60% of Merchants Say Direct Holiday Sales Are UpPeople are spending more of their holiday dollars this year through catalogs and the Internet, according to a survey conducted by the New York-based Direct Marketing Association... Rounding the Final Holiday HeatWith less than two weeks to go before Christmas, many marketers are gearing up for what they hope will be some of their busiest days of the year. But how are we doing so far?... E-mail Marketers Showing Holiday Restraint(Magilla Marketing) As the volume of holiday print catalogs threatens to break the backs of America’s postal carriers, it would stand to reason that consumers’ e-mail inboxes would be overflowing as well, ... Fruit for Thought with Harry & David(Chief Marketer) Before we even spoke with Cathy Fultineer, executive vice president, sales and marketing for Harry & David, we knew the answer to our first question. ... Starbucks Reinforces Brand by Helping Customers Do Good(Chief Marketer) Sure, as usual, this year Starbucks changed its coffee cup color to red to signal the start of the holiday season. But it went beyond cups this year ... Sometimes a Fantasy: Behind the Neiman Marcus Christmas BookHow would you like to be the person responsible for finding the fantasy gifts that appear in the annual Neiman Marcus Christmas Book? It may sound fun,... Cyber Monday Sales Up 26%According to Deloitte & Touche USA, more people shopped online the Friday after Thanksgiving than the Monday after. But according to comScore Networks, Cyber Monday was “the highest single day in retail e-commerce history.”... Holiday E-mail Volume Up, But Campaign Sizes Down(Magilla Marketing) While e-mail marketers have begun this holiday season by predictably sending more messages, individual campaigns are going out significantly smaller... And They’re Off: Black Friday Sales StrongMost retailers are no doubt hoping that Black Friday will be indicative of the holiday shopping season overall. According to research firm ShopperTrak RTC, retail sales this past Friday were up 6% ... Last Call for Pre-Black Friday PredictionsThe day after Thanksgiving may not really be the busiest retail day of the holiday season (more on that in a minute), but the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving are undoubtedly the busiest days for press releases regarding retail during the holiday season.... |
Make Sure Your Holiday Sales Analysis is Complete
Getting Ready for Post-Holiday Returns
