The recession continues! But evidence mounts that the world that emerges out the other end will be different from the one that entered it (and hopefully from the one that caused it). My latest indication is what data about Black Friday (2010) tells us. I initially found access to the data in this Mashup blog entry (Black Friday Sales Figures Soar for Online Retailers), by Jolie O’Dell. According to the story and this Coremetrics posting, online sales on November 26 exceeded sales from FB a year ago by 15.9% and the price of the average purchase rose from $170 to $190.30 — an increase of 12.1%.
Certainly there is much that can be concluded from this data. But it must be acknowledged that the environment that influences these shopping behaviors are infinitely complex and they intersect with each other in lots of different ways. But as someone who has been promoting the use of this emerging digital and networked information environment for almost thirty years, it is just one more indication of our acceptance and growing dependence on our information and communication technologies and the information experiences that they avail.
It also makes more clear the need to retool every classroom and equip every teacher and learner with contemporary information technologies, and instill not only the literacy skills of this information landscape, but also the literacy habits.
Of particular interest is the shopping practices that the Cormetrics data implies. When visiting an online shopping venue, the number of pages viewed per session decreased by 7.39% from BF 2009, and the number of products viewed declined by 17.97%. O’Dell, in her blog post, suggests that,
This data … shows that consumers, though they’re spending more online, are spending smarter. When we make a purchase, we’re viewing fewer items per site, looking at fewer pages and doing fewer on-site searches, suggesting that we’ve done our research ahead of time and know what we want when we decide to make a purchase.
Although this data is less compelling, the Coremetrics post suggests that,
Consumers appear increasingly savvy about their favorite brands’ social presence, and are turning to their networks on social sites for information about deals and inventory levels.
I would be curious to know if you plan to, or already have utilized your social network to assist in your holiday shopping decisions? ..and if we are, as a society, coming to rely more on our personal digital connections in making decisions, how does this impact the what and how of our children’s learning?
Just yesterday we were buying an iron from a local store. We went in and found all 4 models they were selling and looked up the reviews for each of them. We decided immediately against buying either of the two Black and Decker models because the reviews for them were horrible. We looked at the difference in reviews for the $20 and the $80 model left, and decided they were similar to teach other, so we went with the cheaper model.
In a different age, we would have gone with Black and Decker (and probably have been disappointed) because it was the brand we recognized.
This article (from the New York Times) gives evidence of a lack of technology literacy when it comes to online shopping:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html
It is about someone who has pushed his online store to the top of Google searches through bad customer service (borderline criminal customer service). All the links from the bad reviews move him higher on the results, but the people who shop there don’t do the simplest checking about the store.
I am an expert in shopping on-line even if I say so myself; I always use sites like retailmenot in order to find coupon codes for free shipping and discounts, I always buy premium designer jeans that are being sold at Nordstroms at $180 for 30 percent off through codes etc.
I surf forums a lot, for example, a site called The Purse Blog has a shopping deals forum where folks will post info on sales and deals from anything ranging to Banana Republic to high end sales such as Prada etc. I prefer designer and upscale items but I never pay full price. All the true shop-aholics on that site are on a first name basis with sales associates at Neiman Marcus, Nordstroms etc and get special deals during pre-sale before they are even available to the public plus they will even post pictures of what’s available at their local Nordstroms and out of state shoppers can call that particular store to order the specific bags we want. There is truly an art to it.
There are also many sites which outline the special deals to be had at Dell and Target etc at Black Friday.
I have no idea how this applies to education but I think most teens nowadays are very web savvy. Very. I post on fashion forums and see young girls ID’ing outfits of their fave celeb to the exact model and brand and then knowing which retailer has the lowest prices etc.
Most young people with an internet connection use review sites like Amazon before buying stuff.