ChicagoShopping.com - a website operated by the Chicago Tribune - announced a partnership today with Groupon

Full story in The Chicago Tribune here

The recently launched ChicagoShopping.com announced a partnership with Groupon, a shopping website that offers a daily deal on the best local goods, services and cultural events in more than 300 markets around the world.

ChicagoShopping.com, a product of the Chicago Tribune Media Group, will feature one new local deal each weekday on the site’s homepage.  The ChicagoShopping deal-of-the-day powered by Groupon is a unique offer exclusive to the Chicago Tribune Media Group. 

“If you like Groupon deals, you’ll now like them twice as much,” said Belinda Englman, General Manager of ChicagoShopping.com.  “By registering at ChicagoShopping.com, you’ll have the option to sign up to receive the exclusive Groupon offer in addition to the feature Groupon highlights on their website each day.  It’s the ultimate opportunity for Chicagoland deal-seekers.” 

"We're excited to offer something special to users of ChicagoShopping.com just in time for the holidays," said Sean Smyth, vice president of business development at Groupon. 

With ChicagoShopping.com, Chicagoans can enjoy fantastic value, flexibility and convenience with access to discounts on hundreds of offers from thousands of their favorite brands.

 “We’re connecting with Chicago deal seekers and shopping enthusiasts to help them find a smarter way to shop,” said Englman.  “For our advertisers, ChicagoShopping.com is yet another solution within Tribune Media Group’s portfolio to expand their reach in the local market.  Apart from providing our advertisers with a new vehicle to extend their current advertising offerings, ChicagoShopping.com also represents a unique opportunity for Chicagoland’s small businesses to reach relevant audiences at the hyperlocal level.”

In addition to ChicagoShopping.com’s Deal of the Day powered by Groupon ChicagoShopping.com lets you personalize your shopping experience and stay informed of exclusive VIP shopping events. Instead of presenting thousands of options with no search customization, once you sign-in, ChicagoShopping.com will find the best deals for you that fit your needs - from deep discounts on your favorite brands to limited time offers from thousands of stores and more. The site also features relevant editorial content focused on shopping tips and advice.

Some interesting stats on holiday shopping trends from the Newspaper Association of America, keep in mind the audience this is written for are newspaper execs.

How Important is Holiday Shopping to Your Retailers? Very!

This holiday shopping period was shaping up to be a tough period even before the financial crisis hit the economy. The Center for Media Research reported in mid October that this year’s sales would likely be the worst in 17 years (versus 1991 when sales increased by 1.2%). Still holiday shopping is projected to be $42.5 billion.

These dim forecasts are coupled with the fact that the extremely late Thanksgiving means significantly fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. No wonder it feels like holiday decorations were going up in July. Seriously, the days when Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was the biggest shopping day of the year are officially over. Some reports suggest that Black Friday has slipped to the 8th biggest shopping day of the year.

A study just released by MediaMark (MRI) reports that 62.3 million adult consumers will begin their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. That is 35.1% of all shoppers are reporting that holiday shopping is now starting before Thanksgiving. 36% of adults will commence shopping between Thanksgiving and December 15th. Another 26% start shopping between the 15th of December and Christmas eve while 2% wait till Christmas Eve to begin holiday shopping. By the way, 1.3% of all consumers don’t start Holiday shopping until after Christmas.

This information is important to your retailers who may not be aware of when sales are now taking place and therefore may be promoting at the wrong time, potentially too late. This is a good time to share the new data from MRI with advertisers.

A few other significant learnings from the MRI 2008 Omnibus study conducted this September:

1. More women shop early: 61% vs. 38% of men
   
2. Households with less income start earlier. 42% of those earning under $59k start early, 35% of those earning $50-100k, while only 22% of those earning over $100k start early.
   
3. 69% of early shoppers give a gift card.
   
4. 33% of adults give a gift wish list to friends and family.
   
5. Halloween is growing as an annual celebration according to NRF’s BIG Research with the average celebrant spending $66.54 on the holiday. 18-24 year olds spend even more, $86.59 on Halloween. Total Halloween spend is now projected at $5.77 billion.