Wireless carriers are gearing up for the upcoming holiday shopping season with several promotions, most of them aimed at consumer and family gift giving.
“We’re obviously in a situation now where demand far exceeds supply, but nevertheless, this will probably be the most robust Christmas for wireless that we have ever seen,” said Brian Prohm, senior industry analyst at Dataquest. “Most major operators, if not all of them, have a solution for gift givers.”
Prohm noted prepaid phones are a popular gift.
“You can pick it up, wrap it and put it under the tree,” said Prohm. “It’s truly a no-hassle gift.”
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is offering phones that include designer Disney faceplates. The company also is promoting its prepaid and family plans as ideal gifts.
Bell Atlantic Mobile’s promotions include a shared minutes plan, a prepaid plan and a plan that gives subscribers two years of unlimited evening and weekend calls when they sign up for the company’s DigitalChoice plan with a two-year contract. Bell Atlantic also is offering mail-in rebates and is decorating its online store for the holidays.
BellSouth Cellular Corp. launched a new promotion at the beginning of this month that includes an access charge of $10, 100 minutes of airtime for another $10 and unlimited nights and weekends for an additional $10. The company also is emphasizing prepaid as a gift idea and will have other holiday offers available at its retail stores, said Wendy Clark, director of advertising and promotions for BellSouth Cellular.
“We don’t really think there is one thing we can put out that all customers will gravitate to,” she said. “Our goal is to make it easy to purchase.
“This holiday season, from all indications, is going to be a great one,” said Clark. “We’re seeing great trends.”
Online shopping is becoming increasingly popular and could be an important factor in wireless sales this quarter.
A recent report conducted by Jupiter Communications Inc., a research firm that studies Internet commerce, predicts the leading consumer commerce sites could process up to 60,000 transactions each day during the holiday season, compared with an average of 29,000 transactions per day in 1998.
“Our online traffic on our site has been tremendous, with limited advertising so far,” said BellSouth’s Clark. “It’s a great place to send a customer, particularly during the holidays when stores are crowded and our agents have good traffic.
“It’s definitely the way customers want to shop.”
In addition to carrier sites, customers can shop for wireless service and products at a number of sites that allow comparison shopping, including Point.com, Decide.com, Telstreet.com and Cellmania.com.
Neerav Berry, vice president of marketing at Cellmania.com, said he expects online wireless sales this holiday season could reach 10 times the level they did last year.
Terry Dwyer, president and chief executive officer of Telstreet.com, agreed online sales are strong. In the few weeks since Telstreet.com was launched, traffic has increased 20-fold, said Dwyer.
“There is definitely momentum in the online space,” said Dataquest’s Prohm. “It is shopping in a hassle-free, pressure-free environment where customers can glean a more full understanding of what’s really available.
“We’ve reached the point on the growth curve where we’re beginning to see the hockey-stick effect on the consumer side,” said Prohm. “It’s going to be a fast-paced industry, at least in the short-term and probably for years to come, and I’m confident next Christmas will be even better than this one.”
Carriers also are getting into the holiday spirit in other ways. CenturyTel is the national communications sponsor for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program, for which it hopes to collect 100,000 toys. BellSouth Mobility DCS is selling a stuffed-toy version of its Ralph the Digital Dog called Bean Bag Ralph, with a portion of the proceeds going to The Humane Society.
