How to Attract Holiday Shoppers? Target and Walmart Say: Price Cuts and Throwbacks
 

How to Attract Holiday Shoppers? Target and Walmart Say: Price Cuts and Throwbacks

Big-box retailers are rolling out discounts ahead of the winter shopping season.

Walmart’s Thanksgiving Meal. Photo: Courtesy Walmart.

Consumers are nostalgic for simpler times and cheaper prices. And appealing to that sentimentality is exactly how Target and Walmart plan to win holiday shoppers this year.

Target announced this week it is slashing the prices of more than 2,000 items in stores, including food, beverages, gifts, and everyday essentials. Price cuts range from a Lego model set retailing for $119.99 that’s now $95.99, to a $5.29 Coffee-Mate creamer on sale for $4.99. The Minneapolis-based retailer also said in its press release that its assortment of holiday goods features thousands of toys, more than half of which are less than $20.

Meanwhile, Walmart debuted an “inflation-free” Thanksgiving meal kit last week that serves eight people, featuring 29 items for roughly $56, or $7 per person. In addition to its turkey spread, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company announced in mid-September that its holiday deals would begin rolling out October 8 and members of its loyalty program Walmart+ will have access to discounted products 12 hours before standard shoppers. Among the deals are price cuts on AirPods retailing for $89 ($40 discount), a KitchenAid Mixer for $259 ($100 discount), and a Michael Kors crossbody purse for $65.99 ($233 discount).

The move is aligned with efforts the retail giants have made to appeal to cash-strapped customers earlier this year. Both companies rolled out private label brands—Target’s Dealworthy and Walmart’s Bettergoods—that offered competitive price caps under $10 and discounts for consumers squeezed by inflation. They’ve also slashed prices all year while discretionary spending remains low.

The days of $1 coffee and candy bars might seem like forever ago, so Walmart vice president of creative David Hartman hopes nostalgia will resonate with consumers with its latest holiday campaign. The company released a 60-second commercial on Sunday with clips of productions such as Gilmore Girls, The Simpsons, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation with the goal of creating a nostalgic, “emotional connection” between the brand and customers, Hartman told Marketing Dive. Clips of the campaign will run throughout the season primarily on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

While Target hasn’t released its holiday marketing yet, it’s engaging with pop culture through a robust partnership with the new Wicked movie, replete with dolls, branded Stanley Cups, and more than 150 products inspired by the film.

But I’m not a BIG BOX

As you know, competing with big box stores on pricing, on like items, is a loosing battle. But not to worry, winning customers for life, not just for price, is being achieved on a daily basis. Doing your best to build relationships between your staff and customers, along with staff having product knowledge and a genuine degree of caring, is an unexpected and welcoming experience for customers, especially during the holiday season. Are you measuring relationship building between your team and your customers? We do that.

Here’s away to encourage building customer relationships. At your team meeting ask your staff to share something interesting they learned about one of their customers this week. Good conversation creates relationships. It can start with a simple question, but more importantly a focused and concerned listener.

Give us a call, we’re here to help you measure your team’s relationship building.

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SYDNEY SLADOVNIK AND CARL PHILLIPS