As the holiday season is approaching, companies and analysts continue to anticipate about this year’s merry shopping spirits in consumers. The tough financial conditions and recovering economy have us guessing about how profitable this holiday shopping season might be. In this context, the Nielsen Company has presented its analysis in this early report.  Nielsen concludes on a positive note that more people would buy compared to last year. The research firm offered some predictions about popular shopping channels:

Value retailers will attract shoppers, but online retailers will see the biggest surge. Unlike 2009, consumers express moderate interest in spending more across a broad spectrum of retail channels, such as consumer electronic, pet, liquor, department, convenience/gas and home improvement stores. Consumers plan to spend less this year in mass merchandiser stores, while plans for spending in supercenters, club, grocery, toy, book and office supply stores remain flat.

The article also predicted popular product categories

Nielsen predicts a strong season for technology products and gift cards, with some possible upside surprises in discretionary items such as apparel, toys, videogames, books and even vacations, especially among upper income households ($100K+)

The consumer today is more aware than ever. This is partly because of the plethora of shopping information available online. Consumers are using this information for planning their holiday season shopping, from their budgets to their errands route. This has several implications for retailers and marketers. Firstly, it can safely be said that there would be more actual shopping than window-shopping. Technology product retailers are one step ahead and have made a number of announcements for holiday discounts.

Also, because of easy search and comparison tools,  online retail is going to be a huge driver in aiding consumer shopping efficiency. So, web tools and mobile apps are going to gain a lot of attention as marketing-service apps. These mobile apps are primarily used to provide a service to the consumer, but also serve as a point of advertising and marketing research. Brands simply cannot ignore these types of apps to successfully market for the holiday season. A previous post on SiliconAngle recommends the same for luxury brands.