Executive Summary

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” provides some background on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and discusses the gifts that consumers are likely to purchase this holiday season.
• Consumers are planning to spend an average of $400 each during the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Half of that money (51%) will be spent online. Among the consumers surveyed, 87% who plan to shop at some point will do so online. Last year, consumers made nearly half of their online holiday purchases by Cyber Monday.
• Market-research company GfK has declared Zara the online fashion leader in Spain. In second and third positions are ASOS and Zalando. Zara also has the best conversion rate (12%) in the Spanish online fashion sector, followed by ASOS at 9% and Zalando at only 3%.
• Many retailers are going south of the border and opening stores in Mexico. Apple, Victoria’s Secret, Williams-Sonoma, Gap, Forever 21 and Amazon have all expanded in Mexico in the past year. Walmart Mexico is outperforming its US parent. Real estate developers have forecast that by 2025 there will be 200 new malls in Mexico, along with a boom in ecommerce.