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.
As the final days for early voting were ticking away Montague County Elections Administrator Ginger Wall said there had been a strong turnout with 12% of registered voters casting ballots for the May 4 Bowie and Forestburg Independent School District Bond elections.
The final day for early voting ended at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Going into the final day there were a total of 1,088 early voters for the bond elections.
On election day May 4 polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at three locations: Bowie Senior Citizens Center, Forestburg ISD Library and Sunset City Hall. Voters can cast ballots at any of the three locations and remember your photo identification.
Bowie ISD is asking voters to reconsider a $65.8 million bond issue, they defeated last November 1,079 to 855. Board members indicated they felt all the needs were still there and they needed to get more information out to the voters.
In the plans there would be a new intermediate school built, and the present intermediate would be renovated to accommodate junior high students that would be moved from their present building.
A weight room would be added at the high school, which did not include one when it was built and a restroom at the baseball/softball fields. Parking would be expanded at the front of the elementary school and a new bus route flow established around the building to alleviate traffic issues.
Forestburg ISD is asking voters to consider a pair of propositions. Proposition A is $4.1 million and centers on a new classroom addition to the high school adding rooms and restrooms, storm shelter and a new roof.
Proposition B at $2.1 million would be for a new eight-lane track, bleacher system and press box with full handicap accessibility and new field with 24/7 public access.
A Saturday night incident involving a sheriff’s deputy trying to detain a female suspect resisting arrest and attempting to take his weapon lead to minor injuries for both.
Shortly after 8 p.m. April 27, Deputy Chandon Heugatter, after responding to a complaint by Kim Hill, served her neighbor Amanda May Hill with a criminal trespass warning for her to stay off their property.
Kim Hill lives at 125 Michigan, while Amanda Hill lives at 307 Front Street, both are neighbors in the Sunset area. Chief Deputy Jack Lawson said the original complaint was Amanda Hill was breaking into their storage sheds and “trashing the property.”
It lead to a confrontation between Amanda Hill as the officer tried to talk with her and then arrest her as she ran back to her house and would not follow his commands to stop.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
Spring thunderstorms and tornadic activity during the weekend caused significant damage in nearby southern Oklahoma cities of Marietta and Sulphur, and while flood warnings were issued for Montague County there were no reports of significant damage in the area.
Flood watch and warnings for the northern part of the county went up Saturday night, but there were no warnings issued for the City of Bowie. Kirk Higgins, emergency management coordinator, said there were no hyperlink warnings set out Saturday and he is unaware of any storm-related damage.
There also were reports of text messages being sent out that only stated “Shelter in place,” with no explanation or attribution. Higgins said he is unaware of any such warnings and the possibly bogus messages if real would have included some explanation.
With the official kickoff of summer a little more than a month away at the end of May, local lakes will go into the summer season strong.
Lake Amon G. Carter reached 100% at 920.51 mean sea level as of April 29. Just one month ago it was at 85.65% full at 918.03 msl, and it remained stable just dropping to 84% six months ago. One year ago it was just shy of full at 97.8% or 919.71 msl.
Read the full story on the local lakes in the mid-week Bowie News.
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