Natalie's Blog: Keeping up with modern day retail

Over the course of the pandemic, TikTok has gained a huge following. The social media has been around for only five years and has over 800 million active users. Wow. 

Ever heard of the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit? Probably right? Well that tag on the app has over 6.1 million views. Just imagine TikToks influence on the retailing world. 

Social shopping, yes it’s a thing. Whenever I go on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and now TikTok, the first thing that comes up is an advertisement for shopping. Most of these social medias even have a shopping tool that has nothing to do with who you follow. Retailers are using social media as another way to get consumers to buy their merchandise, and TikTok is leading the way.

TikTok users are extremely creative with their videos, now think about retailers who have a decent advertising budget and powerful digital arts team. These videos that retailers post drag the consumer in and keep them. Once you click on their account or give their video a like, that company will now show up everywhere, reminding you of it. It’s not just huge retailers that are taking advantage of this hot app. Small businesses are flourishing because of it. All it takes for one of their videos to get slightly viral and they start to gain a committed following.

Social media has always been a force in online shopping. But with the influence TikTok has, it has changed the way people shop and where they shop. Small business retailers have a foot in the door because of this. People’s homemade baked goods side hustle has now turned into a successful, full time, online business. TikTok has changed the way retailers have presented themselves and have consumers spend their money.

I’m not sure when I first heard of this major issue, maybe early in the summer, but the supply chain disruption has and still is affecting retailers heavily. And we can thank that to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everything you can think of you buy, from canned soups to your favorite clothing brand, has been affected by the supply chain. We now live in a world where we can get anything we want by the click of a button. Remember when there was no toilet paper or hand sanitizer in stores, or it was going for hundreds of dollars online because it was so valued? That was the start of it all. The supply chain is what makes this world go round. People in Alaska don’t have winter coats, people who need food delivered can’t get it on time because airplanes have been delayed. The supply chain being “broken” is casting a major domino effect on everyone's way of life.

Why haven’t factories been producing more?

That’s the thing. They did. This major increase in demand caused major troubles with transporting goods to factories in need. When all these products were being finished (mainly in China), they were just collecting dust in the warehouses because there was a shortage of shipping containers. One offset affects everything down the line. And now consumers are freaking out for the holidays. What if their favorite retailers don’t have what they want in time for Christmas or Hanukkah?

The supply chain disruption is a huge part of the consumers decision to start their holiday shopping very early. And retailers are struggling to keep up. Favorite brands like Lululemon and L.L. Bean has merchandise on backorder that could take months to come in.

The real question is when will this end? Consumers aren’t happy, and retailers are definitely not either. Maybe 2022? 2023? 2024? No one really knows. Retailers have a real issue on their hands and I hope they can resolve it as soon as possible.

Growing up, the day after and even Thanksgiving night, I would always beg my parents to take me out shopping on what it’s called Black Friday. Black Friday is supposed to be the one day a year when most retailers have crazy good deals on their merchandise. However, Black Friday seems to start earlier and last longer each year.

In 2020, Amazon launched an October Prime Day due to the pandemic. This year they moved Prime Day back to a mid-year event. But because they had deals in October the previous year, tons of other retailers decided to launch their promotional calendar early this holiday season. Around October, retailers already started advertising their holiday promotions and Halloween hasn’t even happened yet. I don’t know about you, but I like to enjoy the spooky season before I go into holiday mode.

I guess the good part about starting Black Friday so early is that it encourages consumers to spend. Brands like Adobe are expecting major increases in online shopping through their promotional calendar. 

Retailmenot, a savings website, conducted a survey which resulted in 83% of shoppers starting their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving and 19% of shoppers started as early as August. Shoppers are concerned about product availability. So why not just buy what you’re looking for way in advance instead of waiting till when everyone is looking for the same item.

The past two years, a majority of Black Friday was held online, for obvious reasons. This year, I assume physical retailers will be chaotic, with the widespread availability of vaccinations. However, most Black Friday shoppers will be online. Retailers have had plenty of time to perfect the way of online shopping, they just need to contain it. For in store shoppers this holiday season, I hope retailers are fully stocked because when it comes to Black Friday consumers show up to do one thing and one thing only, complete a mission.