By Tom McGoldrick
Dec. 3, 2009
No one knows how significant the impact of the H1N1 flu will be on residents around the world, much less here in southeastern Michigan. But this holiday season retailers are faced with the prospect of the H1N1 flu virus having an impact on their sales, which is bound to leave many business executives and retail managers feeling a bit ill themselves.
Yet there are steps retailers can take to help mitigate this threat.
In late October I was part of a team at Morpace Inc., a Farmington Hills-based market research and consulting firm, that released an Omnibus study which measured the projected impact of the H1N1 flu on consumer shopping habits. The results showed that nearly one in five consumers say their concern over the H1N1 virus will prevent them from shopping on traditionally busy retail days during the 2009 holiday season.
We also found that women are more likely to avoid the busiest shopping days than men. Since women represent such a critical holiday shopping segment this could have an impact on the success of “Special Day” promotions.
Such concern stems from a consumer fear of being exposed to the virus which has been publicized globally over the last 12 months. Some of our respondents indicated that they were going to extraordinary lengths to avoid large crowds.
Another Morpace study generated similar results in November, with 15 percent of respondents indicating that they would still shop at retail stores, but would plan to avoid particularly busy days such as Black Friday. These results will help drive future retailer sales and marketing strategies in future years if similar viruses threaten the consumer population.
As with any major cultural event there are both opportunities and challenges presented by this fear. Retailers who understand their customer’s motivations can use this information to make changes to how they market and run their business.
For example, many retailers can drive even more of their business online. This is already happening organically as more consumers become comfortable with shopping on the Internet. As a result this holiday season presents an opportunity for retailers to specifically market their online retail storefront to consumers who would prefer to avoid large crowds.
In addition, retailers can use this information to modify how they market their business. Such marketing efforts could focus on how clean and well-organized the store is, complete with images of bright space and overtly clean displays. Retailers large and small may also want to consider adding small features that consumers would appreciate such as alcohol wipes for signature pens at point-of-sale (POS) machines and bottles of hand sanitizer throughout a store.
I also anticipate that promotions which focus on financial savings throughout the entire holiday season could be more effective than promotions that emphasize huge savings on specific shopping days. Now that Black Friday has passed the next few weekends in December before the conclusion of the holiday season will likely be extremely busy. Large crowds during those days may scare off jittery (and healthy) consumers.
Virtually every business challenge leads to new opportunities. Retailers who are nimble enough to adjust to the potential impact of the H1N1 virus this year could not only see less of an impact on this year’s holiday sales, but they will also be more prepared to handle a similar threat during feature holiday shopping seasons.
Tom McGoldrick is a vice president of Retail Services for Morpace Inc.