Holiday Shopping Brisk Online

Online vendors can expect happy holidays this year. Even before gas prices started dropping, experts and consumers alike were predicting that 2006 would be another strong online holiday shopping season. One difference this year: sales growth from experienced online buyers who increase their spending rather than newcomers clicking “buy it now” for the first time

E-marketer’s “Online Holiday Shopping Preview” forecasts that internet merchants will ring up sales worth $24.3 billion during the 2006 holiday season, a respectable 22.1% growth over last year, and a huge jump from the “only” $10.6 billion in 2002.

Additionally, the National Retail Federation predicts that sales for gift cards will total $24.81 billion this holiday season, a $6 billion increase over 2005 when gift card sales hit $18.48 billion. NRF President and CEO, Tracy Mullin, says, “Consumers love gift cards because they take the guessing out of holiday shopping and retailers love them because they are easy to stock and take up minimum shelf space.”

Holiday Sprucing Up

With the December holidays quickly approaching, it’s a great time to add some pizzazz to your dining room.

Replacing a dated, shiny brass chandelier will provide instant impact – and create a favorable impression later when you resell your home. If the fixture isn’t connected to a dimmer switch, consider installing one. For as little as $6, you can have a wide range of different atmospheres at your fingertips.

While you’re looking up, you may want to jazz up the ceiling… by adding a medallion at the base of the chandelier, wallpapering the whole ceiling or applying some faux paint or a wallpaper border to a vertical step in the ceiling. If your home has a nostalgic flavor, you might consider Armstrong’s decorative ceiling tiles that look like antique tin ceilings. Once painted gold or copper, they look like the real thing – without the pour acoustics.

A chair rail can add charm to a simple dining room. Chair rails are usually 32 inches from the floor and stained or painted the same color as the room’s woodwork. For added impact, paint the area under the chair rail a slightly darker shade than the upper portion of the walls or hang a coordinated wallpaper either above or below. Or, you may want to add bead board or use molding to create the look of panels under the rail.

New Developments in the Digital Homes

Whether you grew up on Pong or PacMan, Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario, it looks like things are continuing to advance in home game systems. Planning for brisk holiday sales, Microsoft has taken another step toward making their Xbox gaming system the centerpiece of the digital home. Launching November 22, the first anniversary of Xbox 360, Microsoft will be providing a content-downloading service that includes 1,000 hours of both standard and high-definition tv and movies from such companies as Warner Bros., Paramount, MTV Networks, and Adult Swim. Microsoft has sold 6 million Xbox 360’s and has about 4 million Xbox Live subscribers.

Not content to let the other guy get a dollar more during the holiday buying frenzy, Nintendo is releasing their new Wii system on November 19. Though not having the tv and movie bells and whistles of the Microsoft system, the Wii will have an innovative controller that melds user movements with the action on the screen. For example, in the Wii Sports tennis game, players swing the Wii Remote like a racket to hit the ball, as in real life. They can add topspin or slice the ball just by angling their hands and wrist like they would in a real match.

My Favorite Color Is...

Joe Hallock, a leading researcher on the topic of color preferences, found some interesting results in his polls on color preferences by gender and age. Some of those results include:

* Female Top 3 Favorite Colors: Blue, Purple, Green (all cool colors)
* Female Top 3 Least Favorite Colors: Orange, Brown, Gray (warm and neutral colors)
* Among favorite colors, preferences for green decrease with age (all genders).
* Among favorite colors, preferences for purple increase with age (all genders)
* Among least favorite colors (all genders), dislike of orange increases with age.

While every woman is unique in her likes and dislikes, and Joe’s conclusions don’t apply to everyone, he certainly offers us some food for thought when marketing to women.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Telecommunication company, Sprint, presents some interesting findings in their recent study “Women in a Wireless World”. For instance, the study shows that 61% of women use their cell phone to find things in the dark, but only 1% use it to shine on their face while telling a ghost story. Personalizing the phone is apparently important with 81% of women surveyed saying they use ring tones to personalize. Only 75% of men do. Flip phones are the style preferred by 72% of the women, versus only 20% for standard non-flip phones and a mere 4% for a slider. And 70% use their phone to send text messages to family members. The Sprint findings also show that 89%t of female wireless-phone subscribers say their wireless phone is a time-saver and more than 50% make at least half of their calls from their wireless phone. Alana Muller, director of marketing for Sprint says, “Today’s on-the-go women demand services that help them juggle life’s demands, stay in touch with their families and express themselves.”