Back to School Shopping

I am a marketing major at Gonzaga, Go Zags! I love my school and I love my program. Being a business student with a heavy focus on marketing I can't help but observe creative, or brilliant marketing tactics on a daily basis. 

In the US the most lucrative time of year for retailers is the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) through to the Christmas shopping spree. Back to school shopping is quickly become the second most profitable time of year for retailer. The media coverage and societal need for holiday gifts, and back to school looks sell these prime time shopping sprees. Retailers don't need to extort tremendous amounts of effort on attracting shoppers. In school I lived for back to school shopping- even if I had to store my finds  for "dress down days."

Most retail rents are high. It is reasonable to estimate $25 dollars a square foot for prime shopping store front. At $25 a square foot retailers can not rely on September, November, and December alone. They need to get creative.

Nordstrom created the anniversary sale to get shoppers during the historically worst month of the shopping calender year. July.  The anniversary sale has nothing to do with norstroms "birthday," it is cleverly crafted promotion. I love Nordstrom, and I think Mr. Nordstrom would have aced any university business strategy course. The anniversary sale combine price competitiveness with product differentiation, and luxury.

 They spoke, and still speak the language of their shoppers.

In Spokane alone, the downtown Nordstrom sold $1 mil on the opening day of the sale alone. However you look at that is a successful day-