Walmart, Macy's, other retailers stock regional favorites
— -- Kids in the South will be jumping up and down come Christmas morning — literally. That's because their parents are more likely to have bought trampolines this holiday season than people elsewhere in the country.
Trampolines were among the top 10 products purchased by customers in the Southern region of the country through home goods website Wayfair on Cyber Monday this year, according to data from Wayfair. The bouncy backyard product makes more sense as a holiday purchase in the South because of the area's temperate climate, says Niraj Shah, CEO of Wayfair.
"In the South, winters are more mild," he says. "Even though it's December, you could probably use a trampoline close to year-round."
Retailers are trying more and more to tap into this logic — catering to customers by getting to know what they may be looking for based on where they live, and likely increasing sales in the process.
This holiday season has set sales records, and forecasts predict December sales will see a 3.6% increase, up from 3.2% from last year, according to data from Retail Metrics. Wayfair saw a record-breaking $4 million in sales on Cyber Monday and the online shopping heyday total rung in at a 33% sales increase over last year, according to IBM Smarter Commerce.
To continue increasing sales year-round, stores are implementing localization strategies, as experts refer to it, customizing their merchandise to better serve specific customers by taking into account factors from weather to sports teams to cultural trends.
"It is the process of seamlessly doing a better job of having what the customer is looking for," says Jim Sluzewski, spokesman for Macy's.
Macy's began its localization strategy, termed "My Macy's," in 2008 and is considered a trendsetter in creating hyperlocally focused stores.
"We've been able to tailor every store to the customer preferences of who shops there," Sluzewski says.
And Macy's continues to home in on those preferences. Some of them include:
•The Salt Lake City store carries more large-size cookware to accommodate the area's population of Mormon families, which tend to be bigger.
•Atlanta stores and other markets with large church-going populations, particularly African Americans, carry a special assortment of women's suits and dresses in white and collections of church hats.
•Macy's stores in communities with more concentrated populations of particular ethnic descent sell certain pastry items popular during the holidays. Minnesota stores sell electric irons used to make krumkake, a Norwegian waffle cookie, whereas Pittsburgh-area stores sell pizzelle presses used to make Italian waffle cookies.
•Stores that serve communities with larger Asian populations, like Flushing, N.Y., offer more apparel in smaller sizes.
•A larger portion of apparel sold in stores in South Florida is linen and in light colors to accommodate the preferences of Cuban-American customers.
By being more "granular," Sluzewski says, Macy's "found that there are significant differences in customer demand and preference, not only in different regions of the country or in different cities, but sometimes up and down the interstate in the same city."
Thinking locally
Catering to those preferences is "more than a good idea, it is where retail is headed," says Kevin Sterneckert, vice president of retail research for Gartner, a technology and business research firm.
