More Discounts and More Promotions For The 2007 Holiday Season

Marketing projections have been made that more holiday discounts and promotions should be available this holiday season as 73% of all US retailers.

Al Ferrara, a Partner in the Retail and Consumer Product Practice at BDO Seidman projects that, "A 5% holiday growth forecast is a full percentage point higher than the forecast of the National Retail Federation, but represents a large drop in optimism among retail CMOs when you consider this same group of professionals predicted 7.8 percent growth for the 2006 holiday season."

Highlights of the BDO Seidman Retail Compass Survey of CMOs

• More than half of all leading retailers expect flat holiday shopping season. Although they think that there will be an increase compared to last year (41% of them think there will be a 5% increase)
  


• The very reason why marketers don't go on holidays during the holiday - 26% of annual sales revenue come in during the holiday shopping season. In 2006, this was 24%
  


• A major concern for the holiday is credit concerns (mostly on account of interest rates and the subprime lending crisis), next to that are fuel costs and the weak housing market. All of which are pretty much interlocked - credit concerns, fuel or energy costs and housing are the top 3 factors that may affect holiday sales in 2007.

• There is also the news about safety issues regarding Chinese products which has affected inventory assortment for many retailers.
  
  

About the study: The BDO Seidman Retail Compass Survey is a national telephone survey conducted in October 2007 by Market Measurement, Inc. Its executive interviewers spoke directly to 100 chief marketing officers, using a telephone survey conducted within a pure random sample of the nation’s largest retailers, excluding automotive dealers and restaurants. The retailers were among the largest in the country, with revenues of more than $100 million, including 15% of the top 100 based on annual sales revenue.