Naomi Sleeper
Vice President Continuous Improvement and Strategic Initiatives
Imperial Distributors
This month, we transition our focus to the December holidays. As families are still encouraged to avoid gathering with other households during the holidays, we will again see the impact of the pandemic on sales trends this month. Here are some key sales trends to look out for during holidays 2020.
1. Mailing materials: The stationery category has seen strong year-over-year increase in sales during the pandemic. Within this category, mailing products are expected to show particularly high sales this season. People are likely to send gifts to extended family and friends, rather than exchange in person. Sending festively wrapped gifts to loved ones will, in many cases, require wrapping at home and then personally mailing gifts out. This will likely translate to increased demand for mailing materials like padded envelopes, boxes, and tapes.
2. Christmas décor: Extended quarantine is leaving consumers eager for festivity more than ever this season. Without extended families gathering together to celebrate the holidays, more households will likely want to turn their holiday decorating up a notch to experience the holiday spirit.
3. Kitchen housewares: Many families who typically only cooked a dish or few for large family Thanksgivings cooked the full holiday meal for their household celebration this year. This led to an increase in sales of kitchen tools and gadgets, bakeware and cookware. The same sales trend is expected in preparation for a greater number of smaller Christmas celebrations this year.
4. Toys & gifts: Availability of common gift items in supermarkets provides consumers with particularly valuable convenience this season. To help limit the need to visit multiple stores, supermarkets can merchandise toys, games, upscale kitchenware, spa products, electronics and devices upfront in stores for easy visibility and access.
By ensuring that stores merchandise key items for shoppers’ convenience, supermarkets can help consumers better prepare for this year’s holiday season, however it is celebrated. As we close out this challenging year, the Imperial family wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday and new year!