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Shopping for an excuse to shop

The credit market is in an ever-tightening vise.

Housing sales are off.

Freddie Mac posted a $2 billion loss in the third quarter due to bad home loans.

Gas prices keep rising.

The gross domestic product is nearly at a standstill, forecast to expand just 1.5 percent from October through the end of the year.

Deeh-deeh-deeh-deeh-deeh.

The sound of a CD skipping?

No, it’s the economy slipping on all gears.

But, economists say we’re not in a recession.

Small-business owners might tend to disagree.

The recession question now hinges in part on how consumers ­ that would be all living, breathing humans ­ spend or don’t spend during this holiday shopping season, which incidentally, was once known as the Christmas shopping season.

The season has long been shamelessly dissected by the mainstream media via man-in-the-street interviews from which they have plumbed the minutest of details and translated them into unreliable economic forecasts.

Hoping to make it a profitable season, as well as convenient for consumers, retailers are now keying on Cyber Monday, the Black Friday of the digital age, to turn things around.

The day, the first past the Thanksgiving weekend, was expected to be filled with wondrous sales and enticements. Some 72.2 percent of online retailers were planning a special promotion, up from 42.7 percent two years ago, according to the eHoliday Survey. The survey, which was conducted by BizRate Research, last month polled 116 online retailers.

We imagine bandwidth ­ that virtual pipeline for Facebook devotees and businesses alike ­ was humming to the shopping sites, throbbing like a human artery, or in this case as a lifeline for commerce.

“As more people rely on the Internet for holiday shopping, retailers have stepped up their game to compete,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, the association for retailers with an online presence. “This year, promotions on Cyber Monday are extremely competitive as online retailers use an assortment of one-day specials to send shoppers online.”

In another survey, this one done by BIGresearch, the Internet “will influence 30.2 percent of holiday sales this year, up from 28.9 percent last year.”

And in sending shoppers online, an interesting tidbit turned up in the survey; the site from which most of the shopping will occur ­ the office!

And the numbers are, as might be expected, big, according to BIGresearch. Some 68.5 million people will be staring at shopping Web sites in their offices instead of doing what they were hired for ­ work.

And with more than half of workers nationwide shopping from the office, some 57.3 percent of men will be leading women at 51.7 percent in the shopping.

Nearly 73 percent of young adults 18-24 years old are more likely to shop at the office than any other age group.

And so a dilemma arises. What do you do as a business owner knowing the economy is reeling and your employees do most of their online shopping at work? Do you do the patriotic thing and let them shop and help the economy or do you put the kibosh on them?

Here’s a possible solution … the ubiquitous gift card!

The National Retail Federation (NRF) points out in yet another survey ­ the aptly named Gift Card Survey ­ sales of the cards will total $26.3 billion this season compared with $24.8 billion last year.

The folks at the NRF go on to say that 56.6 percent of consumers plan to buy one compared with other top-selling gift items like clothes or toys or books.

And with popularity rising among young and old, nearly 88 percent of shoppers said they would buy two or more gift cards.

“It is no secret why gift cards are the most popular item on consumers’ shopping lists,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF president and CEO. “Many consumers pulled back on spending for themselves this year and are hoping to receive a gift card so they can purchase something they may have had their eye on for months.”

So, as for the office-shopper dilemma, gift cards may be the way to go. A gift-buyer doesn’t need to know size, color or taste of the recipient. They only need to choose the amount. Quick and simple ­ albeit impersonal ­ and wrapping’s a cinch, requiring no more than the tin foil from today’s turkey sandwich. “Oh, Tab, you shouldn’t have ­ a $10 card from Flushco … and it’s covered in mustard!”

So perhaps business owners can let their workers shop online so long as they can prove they bought gift cards and did so quickly. If workers fail the litmus test, let them shop for a new job.

 

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