Wal-Mart hopes to boost holiday sales with low priced toys
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | 3 Comments
Wal-Mart has had success around Christmastime. In the past it has offered toys by price point such as $10 toys and $15 toys. This year it is going to be upping its offering of $10 toys to more than 100 toys, including 10 of its most popular toys.
So, what can $10 at Wal-Mart get your child? There are Barbie dolls, board games, Transformers action figures, and even Play-Doh kits (I loved those when I was a kid). When you’re paying $10 for Monopoly, you are definitely getting a deal because any other time throughout the year, Monopoly costs $15-$20.
The discounts on toys will last through the holiday season.
Laura Phillips, the vice president of toys (side note: how fun would that job be?) for Wal-Mart said that when mothers were surveyed, their top priority for shopping this holiday season is finding toys that fit into their budgets. She went on to say, “What we learned from last holiday was that price mattered more than ever.”
This could be why the majority of toys on the Toys R Us list that came out are all under $20.
The holiday season is when retailers make up for poor sales through out the year. On average, holiday sales make up 25 to 40% of the annual revenue for a retailer. Last year was the worst holiday shopping season in almost 40 years according to some analysts.
Phillips said that somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of shoppers of Wal-Mart begin their holiday shopping sometime before Halloween and that 20% actually finish their shopping by Halloween.
If you haven’t been out in a couple of weeks, it really looks like some retailers are trying to take advantage of that. I have seen more Christmas decorations out earlier than last year. Even at a local Walgreen’s, they had pulled out the Christmas wrapping paper from last year that still had the 50% off signs on them. I can guarantee that those signs will come off and the paper will be put out as soon as they can clear space for it in the middle of the store.
Toys R Us wants you to remember that the holiday season is just around the corner
Wal-Mart is trying to get all the business this holiday season
Tags: christmastime, christmas wrapping paper, toys r us
tokyomarc | Thu, Oct 01 2009
Doesn’t the build up to Christmas seem to come earlier every year? And I can’t believe some 70% of shoppers are organized enough to begin their shopping before Halloween. Whatever happened to the last-minute rush? I guess I’d better get shopping. (Play-Doh rocks, by the way.)
Rob from dinosaur toys | Mon, Nov 09 2009
Well, shoppers get more organized because it is possible to find some real bargains before Halloween, besides, they learn from their own mistakes – sometimes it is hard to find good quality gifts days before Xmas. Still, I am sure last minute rush will be on this year too. I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve to make sure I monetize that rush properly!
Steven Francis | Tue, Nov 10 2009
Most of the business people are doing this. Taking advantage of festival season is a good option. Wal-mart is doing the same. It is a good decision as the sell of toys during the Christmas increases by a great percentage. So it will be a good option to attract customers with the offer. Also vendors are aiming at Halloween costumes. It is good from consumers perspective also. There is no need to buy expensive items as cheap commodity is available.