As we move beyond Australia Day and Auckland Day into the real start of the year in our unique countries, it's worth looking at how the US has traded through its holiday and New Year sales season.

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This article first appeared July 19, 2011.

There is an old adage in retail marketing. It revolves around the importance of the power of the retail store staff to change our minds when we come pre-prepared to buy a specific brand. The adage is that: "if it goes on the body, in the body or costs over $50, we shoppers always ask store staff for advice." 

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It's been a tough year for a number of Australian retail sectors – which means it's been a tough year for manufacturers, suppliers, freight forwarders, clearing agents, recruiters and employees.

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The great thing about the US is access to data. Huge amounts of broadly collected and publicly available shared shopper data that allows people to make decisions on how to talk to shoppers.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about the lead up to the Christmas and New Year in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and the real sense that this holiday season will be much better than the last.

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There’s so much talk about the rise of retailer owned brands and a misplaced belief that this is a bad thing for Australians and a bad thing for Australian companies who manufacture here. Yet we have very clear evidence of well-run businesses thriving under hard working and down to earth Australians.

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We are now firmly into the Christmas holiday and gift giving season. Billboards, giant Santas, Christmas decorations, websites, catalogues and heaps of Christmas stock is now starting to flow into stores. This is always a thoroughly exciting, stressful and challenging part of the year for everybody who works in and around retail.

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My son is just finishing a two year advertising degree. He is creative and passionate about the role of the internet in messaging for brands, is media and commerce savvy – and hates writing.

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When we vote for politicians or pay senior public servants large amounts of money to perform important roles, we expect a level of awareness and knowledge from them in order to be able to perform their duties. We also expect them to be able to see a bigger picture and create an environment in which business can operate fairly and shoppers can shop fairly. But I may just be being naive.

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Whenever we launch new business models or "new mousetraps", as management consultants say, we tend to have only a short period of time during which our "newness" has value to shoppers and better margins for the business.

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