U.S.A: As early as the second week of July, the first shots of the “Back-to School” sales war began. Each year, the Back to School (BTS) season begins earlier and earlier and this year is no exception.
Some anxious retailers are jumping the gun to get shoppers' attention extra early. With good reason: Last year consumers spent more than $55 billion on back-to-school shopping, the National Retail Federation says. Many retailers are still nervous about consumer spending in a topsy-turvy economy.
The BTS season once was dominated by the likes of Office Depot, Office Max and Staples, but those days are now long gone.
Most retail stores have learned to live and die on the results of their BTS season which they once dominated even amongst the other office supply retail chains.
2010 saw a quantum change in the retail back to school industry when Wal-Mart started taking out full page color advertisements across the country targeting other office supply retail chains. These ads pictured popular items with the much lower Wal-Mart prices compared to the higher prices by others. Some of the advertisements showed a near 50% aggregate savings over the other retail office supply chains.
Now the market that was once the sole dominion of the office supply chains is overcrowded and hotly contested. Across the USA drug stores like Walgreens and grocery stores like Publix are stocking their shelves with crayons, note-books, and back packs, while retail behemoths like Wal-Mart and Target move to dominate the market. Thousands of online providers have also jumped in with both feet, led by Amazon.com.
Most of the beleaguered office supply retailers can no longer count on an automatic sales boost during the BTS season. Now these retail office supply chains must fight for every BTS penny the consumer has available. The fear within the office supply retail community is that their stores have lost market relevance and larger and large chunks of the BTS spend will go to destination super stores and online, while grocery and drug stores steal a lesser market share.
One thing can be said, the BTS season must now be viewed with foreboding by the retail office supply chains and not the unbridled enthusiasm of years gone by.
Source: David Sherwin, Fort Myers, FL Back to Home page
 |
