Retailers hoping to succeed this holiday season need to fire up their “promo mojo” if they hope to break away from the pack. That’s the word from retail consultancy Kantar Retail in their 2010 Holiday forecast, which foresees a 2.5% sales rise in the fourth quarter.
Still, Kantar’s senior economist Frank Badillo says the growth will feel more sluggish than it actually is, and that’s why Kantar is urging retailers to use smart promotions to get shoppers in the door. “The pace of spending feels much weaker even though the spending is actually much stronger than we had a year ago,” Badillo says.
Badillo notes that sales were robust in the first half of 2010 as economic stimulus programs such as the appliance rebates and the homebuyer’s tax credit gave retail sales a boost. As those programs expired, sales slowed, creating an image that the economy was slowing down.
But Kantar Retail is hopeful not only for the holidays but even beyond, with preliminary estimate for 2011 sales growth is somewhere between 2.5 and 3.0 percent.