NEWS
Black Friday, Cyber Monday trends are unclear
Black Friday deals are on, but don’t forget about the biggest online shopping event of the year, Cyber Monday. Known for it’s deep discounts and site-wide deals, Cyber Monday is the day to get deals across every product category, from the comfort of your own home. Offers.com & BlackFriday.com recently conducted an in-depth survey to find data on consumer shopping trends for the holiday shopping season.
Our survey found that Cyber Monday beats out Black Friday in popularity for the second year in a row.
“With online retailers undercutting brick-and-mortar retailers (and the obvious convenience factor), online shopping is becoming increasingly compelling for shoppers. With the convenience of online shopping, shoppers are able to purchase just about anything they can imagine from the comfort of their own home and score the same deals or even better as they would in-store. Our data also shows some interesting trends when it comes to shopping both online and on mobile this holiday season.” – Howard Schaffer, GM of Offers.com.
General Cyber Monday trends:
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Cyber Monday beats out Black Friday in popularity for the second year in a row, with nearly 72% of consumers planning to shop online for Cyber Monday and only 69% shopping the traditional Black Friday sales
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Experts predict huge travel deals this Cyber Monday and Travel Deal Tuesday, with airfare deals continuing throughout the week, with some of the biggest savings after Cyber Monday.
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Cyber Monday is most popular among younger consumers. Among 18-to-34-year-olds, 88% plan to shop on Cyber Monday (compared to 74% of 35-to-54-year-olds and 52% of the 55+ crowd).
Mobile trends:
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Technology continues to play a major part of the shopping holiday with a 17% increase in mobile use in the past two years.
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Nearly three-quarters of consumers (73%) plan to use their mobile devices to assist with holiday shopping.
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Mobile use is not up from people shopping on their phones, but from consumers heavily relying on mobile devices to look for coupons, compare prices, check reviews and get directions to the store for an optimal holiday shopping experience.
Millennial trends:
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Although Cyber Monday proved to be favored more overall, Black Friday shopping garnered a surprising surge of popularity with millennials.
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Younger generations are 19% more likely than any other age group to hit the brick-and-mortar stores come Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
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As the tech generation, 88% of millennials will be shopping on Cyber Monday this year – roughly 20% more than the shoppers over 35 who plan to do so.
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Millennials are also more likely to shop for experiences this holiday season than older generations (25% vs 11%), who are more focused on physical items such as clothes and technology.
Online shopping trends:
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With online retailers undercutting brick-and-mortar retailers (and the obvious convenience factor), online shopping is becoming increasingly compelling for shoppers.
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Holiday-shopping aside, the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (96%) shop online throughout the year. The majority (64%) do so at least monthly, up from 57% in 2016.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Retail Trends
Stores such as Target, Walmart and Kohl’s will be offering the best deals. Year after year these retailers have shown major discounts on the top items consumers are looking for such as clothing, electronics, gift cards and toys. A new player in the game is Amazon, having risen to the top spot in consumer popularity within the recent years. With Amazon providing sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, plus fast shipping and no lines, it’s not hard to see why the online retail giant has risen to the top.
While Black Friday is known for its deep discounts on specific products, Cyber Monday is known for its sitewide sales. Look for deals on toys, apparel and small appliances if you want to make the most of what Cyber Monday has to offer. If Black Friday is known for its electronics sales, Cyber Monday is the king of clothing. Expect site-wide sales from Kohls, JCPenney and Macy’s where you can save on your entire purchase. Because online selections tend to be bigger than in-store selections, you have more options in your size and have the chance to get up to 40% or 50% off your whole cart.
NEWS
Bowie City Council taking shape with three new members
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
The Bowie City Council welcomed three newly-elected members Tuesday night and the panel had its annual council orientation of duties presented by the city attorney.
Brandon Walker and Laramie Truax took the oath of office for their respective seats during the meeting. Laura Sproles was sworn in prior to the meeting as she was enroute to the hospital after a fall at home where she injured her hand and wrist. All the candidates had to take the oath by Tuesday night after the votes were canvassed.
City Attorney Courtney Goodman-Morris made the presentation on council duties and obligations, as well legal requirements. Brent Shaw was elected as mayor pro tem.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
NEWS
Bowie School Board swears in two members
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
Trustees of the Bowie Independent School District welcomed one new member this week following the Nov. 5 election and accepted the 2023-24 outside audit with no exceptions.
Incumbent Trustee Jacky Betts returned to place one and Angie Christmas took the place two seat. After the board officers were dissolved with the new ones taking the oath, officers were elected. Betts will continue as president, Guy Green as vice president and Kent Dosch as secretary.
Paul Fleming of Edgin, Parkman, Fleming & Fleming, PC, presented the audit telling there were no issues and the process went smoothly. He noted the biggest change was the Legislature compressing the district tax rate and additional changes in the tax law. State aid formula grants increased due to the state’s funding formula compensating for lost property tax revenue due to the law change previously mentioned.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
NEWS
ER/hospital steering group formed
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
Information was the watchword for the second hospital/emergency room community meeting Tuesday night, as the steering committee was announced along with additional financial considerations.
About 50 people attended the meeting. Melody Gillespie, who was named chairperson for the committee, said the goal is to gather information to get it out into the community. This group was formed after the Bowie emergency room was closed by Faith Rural Health System in early October just shy of one year of operating in Bowie.
Kylie Ward, one of the public relations volunteers, said, “This committee is not here to force things on you and there are assumptions already we are proposing a tax. We are not, we don’t have that ability, we are just a research team here to explore all the options.”
Other members of the committee include Tiffany Chandler and Damon Benton handling finance and grant research; Jennifer Tellef, secretary; Valerie Tomerson, grant research; Ann Smith, PR and Margin Latham and Gillespie, legislative research. It was pointed out there are other members of the sub-committees who are helping with research, but they also invite anyone interested to help with the process.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
Top photo – Jack County Judge Keith Umphress spoke at this week’s steering committee meeting. (Photo by Barbara Green)
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