The Christmas shopping season got off to a record-breaking
start this past weekend. Retail sales from Thanksgiving through the Black
Friday weekend (Friday – Sunday) were reported to be $68.9 billion. That was a
record for cash changing hands over the Thanksgiving weekend. But get this:
half those sales were online sales. So, even though the retail world was
setting the cash registers on fire, the number of people entering an actual
bricks and mortar store dropped 6.2% over last year. 1 Add to this,
Cyber Monday sales broke the old record of online revenue for one day. In the
U.S. alone, Cyber Monday sales were reported to be $9.4 billion.2
What does this mean for your business? For one, delivery of
products is becoming a bigger deal than it once was. Market expectations are
that you can deliver anything overnight, or maybe the same day. Now you may be
thinking that sort of thing is happening with consumer goods in the retail world
and it wouldn’t impact a business-to-business operation, a service provider or
a nonprofit. Think again! What happens in the retail world with consumers
carries over to the expectations placed on other industries as well. If someone
can order a Christmas gift online after they take their last bite of pumpkin
pie on Thanksgiving and expect the package to show up at their doorstep the
next morning, they will demand the same kind of delivery speed of you -
regardless of your business.
Where does marketing play into all of this? Smart marketers
are keenly aware of changes in the attitudes of the customers that make up your
target market. Marketing is charged with making a distinction between you and
your competition, especially when it comes to the things that catch the
attention of your target market, like delivery speed. So the company that can
deliver the quickest will have an edge over their competition. Contrast this distinction
in your marketing. Delivery speed may be the difference between winning or
losing customers, so if you can make a fast delivery – at least faster than
your competition – get the word out and exploit the difference.
Delivery of a tangible product is one thing, what about
delivery of a service? The same principle applies here. The expectation is a
service provider will respond quickly – maybe even quicker than the delivery of
a product, especially when the service can be provided electronically. The
business that can work efficiently and solve problems swiftly has the edge. You
should market this advantage to your customers.
Many businesses shy away from marketing the speed at which
they deliver products. They fear the backlash from customers when they hit the
bump in the road that will cause them to miss such a chop-chop, self-imposed
deadline. They would rather stifle all the talk of a speedy delivery and keep
their customers in the dark. I would caution you that, even though missed
deadlines will happen, you are exposing yourself for the competitor who leans
on delivery as a marketing message. Look around you! We live in a can’t wait
society. Fast sells well. Ignoring that fact will not change the minds of
consumers. So find a way to make fast deliveries happen at your business and
make it a key marketing point.
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1. Why Thinner Black
Friday Weekend Crowds Are No Cause for Alarm for Retail, by Phil Wahba, Fortune, December 2, 2019
2. Cyber Monday totaled
$9.4B in US online sales, smartphones accounted for a record $3B, by Sarah Perez Ingrid Lunden, techcrunch.com,
December 3, 2019