with full force! U.S. Black Friday retail sales to grow 15%

According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, retail sales during Black Friday in the U.S. this year are expected to grow 15% over last year (excluding auto sales). Mastercard SpendingPulse counts in-store and online sales for the year, but does not adjust for inflation.

Consumers are already getting ready for the Black Friday shopping event. And this year's Black Friday may have some new trends.

In -store shopping picks up: On the basis of last year’s rising momentum of physical store shopping, more consumers will decide to go offline this year. This year’s offline retail sales are expected to grow by 18% year-on-year.

Increased discounts at department stores: Department stores are also making a comeback, choosing to lure shoppers with deep discounts. Department store sales are expected to grow nearly 25 percent year-over-year this Black Friday, as shoppers shop for all the gifts on their holiday shopping lists.

Increased dining out: Black Friday is expected to see a 35% year-over-year increase in restaurant visits, as people prioritize dining at restaurants when gathering with friends or family.

Peak travel season: Travel companies are jumping on the bandwagon with holiday promotions. In addition to the retail industry, airlines (up 39% year-over-year) and hotels (up 32% year-over-year) are also expected to post double-digit growth during Black Friday, as more and more Americans make holiday travel plans.

Canadian holiday shopping survey, technology products become the most popular category!

Canadian consumers will be more focused on price and convenience during the 2022 holiday shopping season, according to a survey commissioned by Google and conducted by Ipsos.

Google said online shopping has become a habit for Canadians due to factors such as home delivery and payment convenience, as well as the impact of the epidemic. Online shopping is going to be very strong this holiday season.

The survey found that price is an important factor influencing Canadian consumers' choice of online shopping. 72% of consumers are concerned about product prices continuing to rise this holiday season. When asked where to shop, 85% of consumers said they would shop at a store that offered a discount, 73% would shop at a store that offered free shipping, and 41% would shop at a store with a lower price.

The survey also found that 89 per cent of Canadian consumers research products or find deals online before making a purchase. According to Google Search Trends, Canadian consumers have doubled their searches for the term "discount code," seven-fold for "price match," and increased searches for " Black Friday" over the past year 3 times.

According to the survey, this holiday season, Canadians are most interested in buying technology products. In electronics, the Pixel 7 was the most popular, followed by the RTX 4090, Samsung tablets, cameras and the Nintendo Switch Lite. In the home appliance space, popular products include the iRobot Roomba, Dyson V15 vacuum cleaner and Dyson Airwrap.

Amazon released a new announcement, and multiple fees have risen across the board!

On November 17, the Amazon US station issued an announcement stating that sales commissions and logistics fees will be updated, and these updates will take effect on January 17, 2023.

After the update takes effect, the pressure on sellers' logistics costs and storage costs may further increase.

For example, FBA delivery fees will increase by an average of $0.22, while introducing finer weight tiers (based on quarter and half pounds);

Another example is the monthly storage fee for non-peak season (January to September): $0.04 per cubic foot for standard-sized items and $0.03 per cubic foot for oversized items. Increased peak season storage fees (October-December) by $0.20 per cubic foot for non-sortable networks;

Amazon said there are two main reasons for the increase in fees:

One, this year some sellers are using much more storage than Amazon expects or thinks they will need, limiting the amount of other sellers’ products that can be sent to Amazon’s warehouses.

Second, fuel and inflation have created more challenges for Amazon, and some of the challenges of the new crown epidemic still exist.

Earlier this year, sellers had already experienced multiple rounds of price increases by Amazon. Many sellers expressed difficulty in accepting Amazon's explanation.

Storage costs have risen, and sellers have higher requirements for product selection and inventory turnover. Especially for distributors and large-scale sellers, improving the sales rate has become the top priority, because once the production period storage fee is accidentally incurred, it may lead to losses.

TikTok "decompression new darling", adult anxiety plush toys become popular!

In June of this year, a video by a user named @eeinparis12 unexpectedly became popular on TikTok and received nearly 10 million video views.

The blogger complained about the weighted plush toys he bought: "I ordered a weighted Dinosaur plushie and mans is both flat and unweighted".

This video quickly fermented, attracting a large number of users to watch. Some users left a message below the video saying that they also bought the same weighted plush toy, but the seller sent an unweighted normal one when they shipped it, while other users left messages looking for a reliable purchase link.

As early as April, this product became popular on TikTok and was once sold out of stock. On TikTok, the keyword "Weighted an-xiety dino" has been viewed as high as 376 million times. Many users posted videos and praised this product. Plush toy, which it says helps sleep and calms people.

According to relevant data, compared with 2021, users' interest in "Weighted Stuffed Animal" will increase by 490% in 2022. As of November this year, its search volume reached 17,000 times per month.

In terms of social media segmentation channels, this kind of weighted stuffed animal plush toy has more discussions on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instragam, Twitter, Printer, and Facebook than other toy keywords.

Especially in TikTok, the popularity is very high, and it may become one of this year's Christmas hits.

Colombia proposes to impose 40% import duties on clothing and textiles

According to Colombian media, the Colombian government intends to impose 40% ad valorem tariffs on the imported products of Chapter 61 knitted or crocheted clothing and apparel accessories and Chapter 62 non-knitted or non-crocheted clothing and apparel accessories produced under WTO MFN treatment , to replace the currently applicable minimum import duty rate of 15%.

In order to promote the balance of international trade, create added value, competitiveness and increase employment, administrative measures to increase tariffs are adopted. The President of Colombia said that the tariff measures will help to promote the vigorous development of the textile and garment industry.

According to Colombian customs statistics, in the first 10 months of 2022, the import of textile raw materials was 91.579 billion pesos, an annual increase of 7.8%.

The main sources of Colombian garment imports are China and Panama . Since there is no bilateral free trade agreement with Colombia, the impact will be greater in the future.

The Colombian National Business Association stated that increasing tariffs will lead to higher purchase costs for consumers and increase inflationary pressures, which will not help improve the international competitiveness of the textile and garment industry.