Free Shipping, Cross-Company Bundles Among Early Holiday Shopping Triggers

CEA forecasters predicted at the Industry Forum in Los Angeles an uptick in novel marketing moves to get consumers to open their wallets early and often during the crucial Q4 selling season. We found in a scan of email promotions and websites Thursday early strategies at work, including free shipping, free products as part of bundle deals, trade-in programs to bring customers into stores and customary price-cutting. Retailers are combining email marketing with in-store promotions, coming up with innovative ways to pull customers into stores.

Timed promotions -- good for a limited period -- will also be bigger this year as retailers try to get customers to buy earlier rather than later. On Thursday, Panasonic notified its shopping club members of a three-day deal on cameras, Blu-ray players, earbuds, soundbars and toothbrushes. Panasonic showed percentage savings rather than price comparisons. The lead item on the promotional email showed 23 percent off for the DMC-ZS25K Lumix camera at $299.99, although it didn’t give the nonpromotional price. We found it at B&H Photo for a buck less and at TigerDirect for $271.99.

Amazon advertised limited-time savings on select LG products Wednesday. The LG 60LA8600 60-inch 3D smart TV was slashed by a third from the list price to $2,199, some $700 below the selling price shown at LG’s site. Among Amazon’s top trending deals Thursday was a cross-partner bundle from Amazon combining a free Roku LT streaming player ($49 value) and a $200 Amazon store credit with the purchase of a ViewSonic PRO9000 1080p DLP projector that carried its own savings, a 39 percent discount to $1,844.99. The bundle was good while supplies last.

Samsung is offering an instant rebate at Abt Electronics on the UN65F6400 65-inch 3D smart TV, which was selling online Thursday for $1,997.99, down from a $3,299.99 list price. The deal included a $700 instant rebate good through Saturday. Abt is throwing in a Samsung wireless keyboard valued at $96 as added incentive.

Free shipping is a primary lure retailers will use this holiday season as they try to ignite the holiday shopping spirit. According to a study commissioned by Shop.org, 16.3 percent of retailers will offer their first holiday free shipping promotion by Halloween and 35 percent have already moved to year-round free shipping, up from 23 percent last year. More than half of online retailers planned to start online holiday marketing promotions by the end of October. The study was conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for Shop.org, with 47 online retailers surveyed from June 10-27 and 44 retailers surveyed from Sept. 4-23.

Of those retailers surveyed, 21 percent planned to boost free shipping offers with conditions, while 2 percent planned to cut back on free shipping, a spokeswoman for Shop.org told us. At the time of the survey, which was taken prior to Amazon’s announcement this week that it’s raising the purchase minimum for free shipping to $35 from $25, none of the participating retailers planned to increase the purchase requirement for free shipping, while 13.6 percent said they were lowering the purchase minimum for free shipping, she said. Just above half of respondents said their current free shipping program would remain in place.

Walmart is offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more, with staggered shipping costs varying by delivery period for orders under $50, it said. To encourage online shopping with in-store pickup, Walmart’s Web page notes that that option is always free regardless of dollar amount. Customers living in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., can also have online purchases sent to FedEx Office locations for free pickup, it said. For purchases under $50, shipping costs start at $4.97 for six- to nine-day shipping and orders over $50 ship free, it said. Three- to five-day shipping is $2.97 for purchases over $50 and $6.97 for under-$50 orders, Walmart said. Faster shipping rates vary according to the item. On the returns side, Walmart offers free shipping on returns with limitations. Electronics must be returned within 15 days of receipt, except for TVs, which can be returned up to 90 days after purchase, according to the website.

Walmart added an in-store trade-in program for tablets this season as another way to bring customers into Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. Customers can receive up to $300 for their current tablet, which will be applied toward the purchase of a new tablet. Customers looking for the value of their existing tablet at the Walmart website are referred to nearby stores.

Abt Electronics’ most recent email to customers promises free shipping on all TVs. The e-tailer is also trumpeting a free 42-inch TV as a giveaway with the purchase of an LG 55-inch 55LA9700 ($3,999) Ultra HD TV, billing it as a $437 value. The toss-in TV brings the first-generation 55-inch 4K TV in line pricewise with LG’s recently introduced 55LA9650, which the company unveiled during CEDIA Expo (CED Sept 30 p1) at a minimum advertised price of $3,499.

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Despite the number of retailers jumping the gun on Black Friday, Best Buy is holding to traditional hours and not dipping into Thanksgiving Day for early deals, according to its website. On Black Friday, Nov. 29, “you'll find special Black Friday deals and doorbusters on select laptops, HDTVs, Blu-ray players, appliances, digital cameras, video games and much more,” the retailer said on its website Thursday. Best Buy is holding to its $25 free shipping minimum, according to the website.