Customers taking advantage of Christmas savings programs offered by retailers during the summer
It’s Christmas in July. Or, August, to be more specific. No one likes to hear Frosty the Snowman while they’re on the drive to the beach for vacation, but retailers have jingle bells on their minds already. Sears, Kmart, Sam’s Club and Toys R Us already have the holiday programs in place, and they are kick-starting them with Christmas inventory summer sales and card-based savings programs.
Sears and Kmart are starting another year of their “Christmas Club,” where guests can get a card that allows them to put away money for holiday spending now, and accumulate extra dollars to use in the Christmas shopping season.
Brandweek reported this quote from Susan Ehrlich, Sears Holdings’ financial services president, “We want people to understand you don’t have to put all your money away now. The goal is to “focus on [contributing] a little bit each week and over time, it can add up to a lot,” she said.
Smart.
While media identify this trend as “Depression-Era tactics,” retailers are using today’s technology to get the word out. Facebook and Twitter are leading the marketing push, as we haven’t seen much about these programs in traditional media.
Toys ‘R Us’s new Christmas Savers Club allows consumers to put as much as $2,500 away for holiday shopping, plus receive a three percent bonus. In an article on CNBC, Greg Ahearn, senior vice president of Marketing and E-Commerce at Toys ‘R Us said, “Knowing that people are very budget-conscious, Toys ‘R Us wants to provide multiple ways to help our customers in any way that we can.”
Here are some other retailers and their programs for the Holidays:
- Target, an IMRE client, plans to give 5 percent discounts to shoppers using a Target credit card
- Sam’s Club has launched a loan program designed to increase loyalty and spending among small-business customers
- Office Depot plans to sell some basic items for less than a dollar
