by Robin Fiedler

It’s Thursday, one week before Christmas Eve. You still have a few gifts to buy. No fear:  you have Free Shipping Day to complete your gift shopping online!

Free Shipping Day, which had its birth in 2008, adds to Cyber Monday, Nov. 30, 2009, Green Monday, Dec. 7, and the Monday after Green Monday, Dec. 14. Free Shipping Day is the last day for online shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. In 2009, it will be Dec. 17. We can expect all 4 days to be the busiest in terms of online sales.

“Luke Knowles is the Founder and CEO of FreeShipping.org, a year-round website dedicated to consumers searching for merchants who offer free shipping. In 2008, he predicted, “Instead of online shopping peaking on December 10, it could and should peak much later into December. Free Shipping Day has the potential to increase online sales by hundreds of millions of dollars every December.”

A few large retailers already offering free shipping are Sears, Kmart, Office Max, JCPenney, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Aeropostale, Apple, Macy’s, and Zappos, all offering free shipping on Dec. 17.

Most shoppers don’t buy online unless the order is shipped for free. comScore analyzed the 2008 numbers for online shopping: “The results show a clear correlation between consumers’ use of free shipping and both the dollars spent per order and the overall growth in online spending versus last year.”

In 2008, comScore calculated a drop in sales when free shipping is removed from the online shopping experience. comScore based its conclusion on last year “… when some retailers pulled back on free shipping deals during the most recent week (week ending December 14), average order values declined and the week experienced negative growth versus a year ago.”

Retailers are taking notice of consumer demand for free shipping. In a 2009 survey, the National Retail Federation reports, “As another sign of the times, free shipping offers will abound this holiday season. Four out of five online retailers (79.4%) will offer free shipping with conditions at some point during the holiday season, while more than half (57.4%) also plan to offer free shipping without conditions. More than one-third (35.7%) said their budgets for free shipping are higher than last year, and nearly as many (30.0%) said free shipping offers will start earlier than a year ago.”

Some retailers offer premium memberships which include free shipping on any order all year round, while many require a minimum $50 order for free shipping this holiday. Josh Smith of Wallet Pop says that 100,000 shoppers took advantage of Free Shipping Day 2008. He warns, however, “while encouraged to offer free shipping on any size purchase, retailers can choose to limit free shipping to purchases that are over a certain limit so pay attention to the details if you order.”

Free Shipping Day is the new kid on the block, but it will perhaps become the most pivotal, marking the last day to ship orders in time for Christmas. Find the retailers at our Free Shipping Guide and shop. The weekend before Christmas, you can sit back and relax as last minute gifts arrive in the mail, just in time to be placed under the tree on Christmas Eve.

Resources

“Free Shipping an Important Stimulus of E-Commerce Spending Again this Holiday Season.” comScore 17 Dec. 2008.

Grannis, Kathy. “Online Retailers to Emphasize Free Shipping, Social Media this Holiday Season.” National Retail Federation. 22 Oct. 2009.

Knowles, Luke. “The Free Shipping E-Book.” FreeShipping.org 5 Jan. 2009.

Smith, Josh. “Free Shipping Day is Back with More Retailers.” Walletpop 5 Nov. 2009.

COUPON TIME

You don’t have to wait until Free Shipping Day to get great deals!  Our Black Friday and Cyber Monday guides show you how to save before December even starts–and our Free Shipping Guide has deals that are already available.

A good friend of my family always says, “Cheap is good–free is better!”  I’m inclined to agree.  And Ben’s Bargains thinks the same way.  They’re hosting an amazing Black Friday Giveaway, and you don’t even have to wait for Black Friday for your first chance to enter.

Signing up for the newsletter, posting in the forums, and tweeting about the giveaway are all ways to get more entries into the contest.   Here are some of the great prizes you could win:

Nintendo Wii

Gorilla Prize Pack

Sony Software Bundle

iPod Nano 16GB

Watch from Szul Jewelry

an HP laptop

$200 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate

and more prizes to be announced later!

What are you waiting for?  Get over to Ben’s Bargains and read all about how to sign up to win one of these prizes.  You’ve gotta be in it to win it!

by Doug Desjardins

The forecast for holiday retail sales was never great to begin with, but leading economic indicators are hinting that they may fall short of what were already meager expectations.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers released Nov. 12 predicts that unemployment in the U.S. will hit 10.75 percent by the end of the year, rising from the 10.2 percent mark reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in October.  The survey also reported a sharp drop in consumer sentiment, which fell to a reading of 66 in November from a 70.6 reading in October.  Economists had been expecting a reading of 71 for November.

“In real terms, we are probably not going to see an increase in retail sales over the holidays,” said Richard Curtin, director of the survey.

The survey also showed that only 10 percent of consumers reported an increase in income in 2009, the lowest figure since the survey started in 1946. And more than 36 percent of consumers reported that their income had declined this year. “This is really a concern for consumers that their financial situation is just heading south and there is really little hope that they can expect it to improve in the year ahead,” said Curtin.

That news came the same day that Wal-Mart reported sub-par results for its third quarter. The world’s largest retailer, one of the few to prosper during the recession, reported a 0.5 percent decline in same-store sales for the third quarter–despite an increase in customer traffic. The retailer, which had expected same-store sales to be flat or up 2 percent at best, is now expecting fourth-quarter sales to be flat or down 1 percent.  Wal-Mart reported a 2.4 percent increase in fourth-quarter sales last year.

“While the economy remains challenging to our customers and to Wal-Mart sales, I continue to be encouraged by both our traffic and our market share gains,” said Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke.

Even a positive report on October retail sales, usually a bellwether for the holidays, hints at a slow holiday season.  According to Retail Metrics, total retail sales rose 2.2 percent in October, marking the best overall performance since June 2008 when sales increased 1.9 percent.  But those comparisons were made against a terrible month, October 2008, and led research firm America’s Research Group to forecast a 2.9 percent decline in spending for the holiday season.

“I don’t see anything out there that says October was an exciting month even with retailers advertising 60 percent off,” said America’s Research Group founder Britt Beemer.

Though research firms differ on their forecast for the holidays, all seem to agree that sales will either decline or be relatively flat. The National Retail Federation expects consumers to spend 3.2 percent less than they did last year while a more optimistic NPD Group forecast projects sales to increase 0.5 to 1.5 percent.

Resources

Sales Rebound from Year’s Biggest Drop

Wal-Mart Predicts Flat Holiday Sales

Economy to Impact Two-Thirds of Families this Holiday Season

Holiday Retail Outlook

Retailers Post Best Monthly Sales in More than a Year

COUPON TIME

Retailers’ loss could be your gain; shop smart and use our Black Friday Sales and Cyber Monday Coupons pages as a guide!

We’ll wind up Tech Week with some great deals on devices and accessories that have changed the way people listen to music:  the mp3 player. 

These handy devices aren’t just for teens.  They’re a great way for people of any age to organize and listen to their music–and in some cases, even watch video.  You can even get cell phones that double as mp3 players (and you don’t need an iPhone for this; plenty of other cell-phone makers offer this feature.)

I’m no fan of wearing headphones or earbuds, so I love that there are lots of speaker systems available for mp3 players that let you fill the whole room with your music–as long as it’s my music, not my kids’ music (or even my husband’s music, as he is a big fan of ’80s pop and my taste runs more toward classic rock).  Want to listen to your player in the car?  You don’t need earbuds for that either; you can find plenty of adapter systems that will let you plug and play.  And how about those handy alarm clock docks for mp3 players?  Wake up to the songs you like, not what some radio DJ wants you to hear.

A fun feature I recently tried is iTunes’ “Genius” playlist.  Here’s how it works:  you choose one song, and hit the Genius button in iTunes.  It generates a long list of other songs in your library that have similar characteristics.  It’s like your own built-in radio station.  And you don’t have to have iTunes to use a feature like this; Microsoft’s Zune software has a similar application.

COUPON TIME

Here are some great deals on mp3s and accessories!

Price Drops on iPod Touch + New iPod Nano at the Apple Store
Plus free engraving!
Valid through: November 30, 2009
See other Apple Store coupons!

$15 off any qualifying online purchase of $125 or more at Radio Shack
Plus free shipping!
Valid through: November 30, 2009
Applies only for standard ground shipping. Entire order must be shipped to a single address. Offer not valid on previous purchases. Only applies to orders to be shipped to a valid address in the contiguous United States. Offer not valid on canceled or out of stock merchandise.
See other Radio Shack coupon codes!

That’s right–it’s basketball season!  Around my house, it seems like it’s all hoops, all the time.  My daughter plays on a middle-school varsity team; her practices and games have already started, and she’s lamenting the fact that it gets too dark too early for her to spend much time after school practicing foul shots with the neighbors.  Her younger brother has been dragging out his kid-size net and drawing wavy “3-point lines” in the driveway with chalk.  When it’s too dark for him to play outside, he’s got a Nerf hoop in the family room.

“Don’t bounce in the house” is the most-commonly-used phrase around here these days.

It’s time for college basketball as well, and I’m getting set to enjoy as many Notre Dame basketball games as I can catch on TV.  The ones I can’t watch, I can listen to on satellite radio.  My son is interested, because he shares a name with one of their star players; he always wants to know how his namesake performed in each game.

I’m looking forward to a great season for my daughter’s team and my favorite college team–the kind of season announcer Dick Vitale would describe as “awesome, baby, with a capital A!”

COUPON TIME

Are you all stocked up on hoops-fan gear for the season ahead?

10% off online orders at FansEdge.com
Use coupon code FENCAA09 during checkout.
Valid through: November 30, 2009
Not valid with other offers. Valid on eligible items only. Additional fees may also apply to certain products due to unusual weight or size. Check your item’s product detail page to see if it qualifies for this promotion.
See other FansEdge coupons!

$5 off with the purchase of $30 or more at Lids.com
Use sale code NOV09LIDS5. Cannot be combined with other coupon codes. Valid on orders shipped to the U.S. only.
Valid through: November 30, 2009
See other Lids coupon codes!

by Doug Desjardins

Retailers aren’t expected to offer deep holiday discounts this year as they did in 2008, but DVDs seem to be an exception to that rule.

Wal-Mart got things going in early November when it offered an online price of $9.99 for pre-orders on new-release DVD titles like Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, essentially cutting the standard price in half and offering free shipping.  That prompted competitors like Target and Amazon.com to match those prices in a move that presages even deeper discounts for December.

The price war is also extending into the high definition Blu-Ray format, where discs are usually priced around $30 for new releases. Wal-Mart has dropped the price on new titles like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Taking of Pelham 123 to $19.99, bringing the price point down to the standard DVD level.

“There’s something about that $20 price point in this business,” said Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research.  “DVD sales at mass market explode after falling below that $20 barrier. That seems to be the magic price point.”

Price wars aren’t always welcomed by manufacturers, since they tend to have a negative impact on overall revenues and profit margins. But the major studios are welcoming this one in a year when DVD revenues have fallen more than 13% due to the lingering recession and a maturing market. “It’s a question of whether it’s worth it for the market,” said Adams. “And they (movie studios) are all in desperate need of a strong comeback. They’re willing to lose a buck or two on a DVD.”

The DVD price cuts coincide with falling prices on Blu-Ray players.  Up until this summer, even non-brand name players were priced above $200 but suppliers - tired of waiting for the market to come to them - have made a concerted push to attract new converts. In mid-November, Wal-Mart lowered the price of several players below $150, including a Magnavox player for $129. Best Buy has dropped the price of its Insignia player to $149 and Costco is selling a Philips player for $139 (with a manufacturer’s coupon for $60 off). Those prices are expected to fall below $100 when sales and promotions pick up after Thanksgiving.

As for standard DVD, the promotional price cuts on pre-orders may signal a more permanent reduction in price for 2010 as the format gradually gives way to Blu-Ray. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, Blu-Ray players and enabled devices like Playstation 3 are now in 11.7 million households and Best Buy executive vice president Mike Vitelli said he expects Blu Ray player sales to surge in 2010 and top 18 million units.

Resources

Blu Ray Popularity Quickens as Popularity of Packaged Media Continues to Drop

Best Buy: 18 Million Blu Ray Players Sold in 2010

DVD Prices Pushed Down by Wal-Mart

COUPON TIME

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’re sure to find deals on Blu-Ray disks, players and more.  Make sure you check out our Black Friday Deals and Cyber Monday Promotions pages for the best prices!

by Robin Fiedler

Kmart, Sears, Office Depot and Best Buy are all having holiday sweepstakes: giveaways of gift cards ranging from $100 to $1000 or daily electronics prizes. Kmart is awarding one $50,000 cash prize!

VIP shopping contests for Black Friday are being offered by Sears and Best Buy. Both are awarding 25 prizes:  gift cards and the right to shop Black Friday sales before everyone else. 

Sears Black Friday VIP Sweepstakes. Shoppers “can visit the Sears Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/sears) and register” for the “the opportunity to win a Sears $500 gift card.”  There’s a second drawing for VIP winners who will have a chance to shop at Sears on Nov. 25 at Black Friday prices with their own personal manager escort.

Best Buy Black Friday VIP Treatment. Entrants “are asked to share in 250 words or less what they are most excited about this Black Friday. They can submit their stories on www.bestbuyvipcontest.com. It runs from Nov. 2 to Nov. 20, with winners announced on Nov. 24, 2009.

Best Buy will award 25 shoppers with “a $1,000 Best Buy Gift Card and full VIP treatment including: a limousine ride to and from the designated Best Buy store, special seating outside for the winner and three special guests, and early admittance into the store at 4:30 a.m. Each winner will also receive an Insignia® Digital Camcorder to document their experience.”

For daily contests leading up to Christmas, look to Kmart and Office Depot. Both have daily instant wins. Kmart’s contest is for gift cards and one large cash prize. Office Depot is giving away 30 gifts in 30 days from computers, cameras, printers to a USB flash drive or pen set.

Kmart’s Mr. Blue Light’s Christmas Countdown. Kmart has the biggest prize, but the most complicated contest. You have to collect Christmas Codes from sales receipts, weekly ads, and emails, and then submit them online or by mail. It involves instant prizes and a $50,000 grand prize.

For the $50,000 cash prize, you must collect game pieces and fill in a week. “Every day you play, you’ll get a Collect & Win game piece. Fill up an entire week on the Countdown Calendar to win a $100 gift card from Kmart or Disney!” It starts Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 25.

Office Depot’s Gift of the Day Instant Win Game. Office Depot shoppers can register at www.top30SmartGifts.com from Nov. 22 to Dec. 24 for “the opportunity to win one of the Top 30 Smart Gifts by playing the ‘Gift of the Day Instant Win Game’ - five winners will be selected every day.” The 30 gifts range from electronics, such as printers, laptops, and digital camcorders, to a lower-end pen set, and the contest is pretty straightforward.

Hope you win something!

Resources

“Do You Want to Be a Black Friday VIP at Best Buy^®?” Best Buy 2 Nov. 2009.

“Mr. Bluelight’s Christmas Countdown.” Kmart.

“Office Depot Shows Holiday Shoppers How to Gift Smarter This Holiday Season.” Office Depot. 10 Nov. 2009.

“Sears Offers Facebook Fans an Opportunity to Shop Black Friday Deals Early” Sears. 17 Nov. 2009.

COUPON TIME

Besides these opportunities to win a shopping spree, you’re also a winner with the great Black Friday deals you can find here!

by Robin Fiedler

This holiday I’m going to Elf Myself; it’s a personalized free e-greeting.

Holiday greeting cards have always been part of my Christmas decorations. The cards I receive in the mail are ceremoniously taped around doorways. That’s hard to do if we’re sending e-cards instead. But no fear, we can send both, and many of us do.

The ritual of sending greetings started with the Ancient Chinese and Egyptians, then later in Europe, more specifically the Germans, in the 1400’s, according to the Greeting Card Association. “Louis Prang, a German immigrant who started a small lithographic business near Boston in 1856, is generally credited with the start of the greeting card industry in America.”

The Greeting Card Association estimates, “The cost of a typical counter card. . . is between $2 and $4.” The average household buys 30 cards a year and each individual receives about 20 cards a year. Women buy about 80% of greeting cards, but men spend more per card. Women buy in bulk; men purchase one card at a time as needed.

According to the Greeting Card Association, we send 7 billion cards every year for a total of 7.5 billion dollars in total card sales. Today, there are e-cards, which became popular in the 1990’s, and surprisingly have not usurped sending traditional greeting cards, but instead are now supplementing our card-giving. “Electronic greeting cards (e-cards) are popular with Americans of all ages because they are casual, fun and spontaneous. Worldwide, an estimated 500 million e-cards are sent each year.” Since we send both, we search for free Christmas e-cards, and we particularly like free musical e-cards.

One 2009 free holiday e-greeting MUST is to Elf Yourself. One of the coolest holiday e-cards for free is offered by Office Max and JibJab Media. Go to Elfyourself.com, and create your free personalized holiday e-card. It’s a short video that can be emailed, streamed, or downloaded. Office Max explains, “Users can then share their holiday eCards via email or using new capabilities that enable them to post their creations to Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites.” It’s all free, but saving a download of the video costs $5.

Up to five family and friends’ face photos can be easily uploaded, scaled and rotated. Then after marking the mouth area, pick a dance from “Disco Elves,” “Hip Hop Elves” to “Singing Elves” that perform a melody of holiday music. You can lift pictures from Facebook or upload from your computer. According to Office Max, Elf Yourself has had 284 million hits worldwide since it started in 2006.

For special family members, Office Max has customized Wall/Desk Calendars, starting at $14, a 2010 wall or desk calendar customized with family photos. I want one of those.

Other popular, and more importantly safe, e-card and e-greeting websites are Yahoo Greetings, which offers a free 2-week trial, and Hallmark.com, which has photo e-card basic formats for free, but an annual subscription costs only $10 for unlimited access. You can also send e-greeting cards through your favorite charity. Not only does the word of the charity spread, but most of the purchase price goes to the charity cause.

According to the National Retail Federation survey, most Americans plan to spend $26.77 on holiday greeting cards in 2009. I haven’t spent any of my $26.77 budget for Christmas cards yet, but my Elf Yourself is ready to go.

Resources

“About Greeting Cards.” Greeting Card Association. 11 Nov. 2009.

“‘ElfYourself’ Returns With Brand New Videos Including ‘Singing’ and ‘Break Dancing’ Elves.” Office Max. 10 Nov. 2009.

Grannis, Kathy. “Economy to Impact Two-Thirds of Families this Holiday Season, According to NRF Survey.” The National Retail Federation. 20 Oct. 2009.

COUPON TIME

After you get ahead on your greeting cards, get ahead on your holiday shopping by checking out all the Black Friday Promotions!

I live around the corner from Gamestop. Last week when I was driving by, a large crowd was forming in front of the store. People had chairs, warm hats, coffee cups, and someone even had brought a Christmas tree along.  It was definitely an interesting sight. 

A friend was in the car with me, and she was puzzled about what was going on.   “A new video game comes out tonight,” I told her.  “All these people want to be the first ones to get it and play it.”

I’ve known parents who have let their kids miss school the day after a midnight release.  Much to my teenage son’s disappointment, that’s not my style.  We have let him hang out in the line in front of the store, waiting for his pre-ordered game–but then he had to get home and go to sleep.  Being a teenager, he still thinks it’s fun to dress in many layers, bring along a large thermos of hot chocolate, and sit up half the night on a cold concrete sidewalk waiting to pick up his game.

Me?  I’d rather buy online and let the big brown truck bring the game to me.  It’s much warmer that way, and I’m not up so late that I can’t wake up to pack lunches the next morning.

COUPON TIME

16% off all In-Stock Used Games and DVDs at Gamestop
Enter coupon code CAG16 in your cart and click “Activate.”
Valid through: November 30, 2009
Only one offer per order. Not valid on bundled items, consoles, or accessories.
See other GameStop coupons!

$15 off any online order over $49 at Broderbund.com
Valid online only. Use this link to activate the promotion. If there is a problem, enter coupon code BB122.
Valid through: November 30, 2009
See other Broderbund coupon codes!

Video games will be big on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so don’t forget to check our links for the latest deals!

I’ve mentioned before that my desk is in the living room.  This is nice because it’s a central location in the house.  I can keep an eye (and both ears) on everything going on in all the public areas.

It’s a blessing and a curse sometimes.

There are a lot of office supplies stored at my desk.  I’ve got the stamps, envelopes, paper clips and checkbook.  And I’ve got a nice big mug filled with my favorite pens (plus a few pencils).  So despite the fact that there’s also a nice big mug of pens, pencils and Sharpies in the kitchen, and a drawer full of pens, pencils, scissors, markers, looseleaf and tape in the dining room, everyone seems to feel that the stuff on (and in) my desk is community property.

My desk is where I do my work as well as organizing my family.  I keep school flyers, calendars, and other necessary papers in order.  And it’s not a big desk. I don’t want to find other people’s stuff on it, and I don’t want other people rummaging in my desk so they can take off with my stuff. Community property is in another location.

Yesterday I cleaned off my desk and removed all the Legos, expired school notices, stray rubber bands, and no fewer than 12 batteries that had collected there. It’s nice and neat again–and if you’re not me, you don’t get to take anything off that desk!

COUPON TIME

If you’re stocking up your desk drawers, here are the best deals:

$30 off a purchase of $150 or more at OfficeDepot.com
Use this link and enter coupon code 80932878.
Valid through: December 31, 2009, 11:59pm ET
Excludes most technology items. This offer is limited to one per customer and is valid for one-time use on delivery-only orders placed online. Valid on in-stock items only. Not valid for purchases: 1.) by contract customers with Store Purchasing or Procurement Cards; 2.) from www.techdepot.com; 3.) of Gift Cards; 4.) of any technology items (including but not limited to all TVs, computers, monitors, printing machines, networking, peripherals, cameras, memory, software); 5.) of postage stamps; 6.) of product protection plans; 7.) of HP ink and toner products; 8.) of wireless, satellite, internet, technology, installation, mailing, shipping, or third party services. Cannot be combined with other “dollars off” or “percent off” coupons.
See other Office Depot coupons!

Up to $100 off select Shredders at OfficeMax.com
Use this link to view eligible items.
Valid through: November 21, 2009
See other OfficeMax coupon codes!