Experience Stern | News & Events

NYU Stern faculty are available to offer perspectives on this year’s holiday shopping, retail and consumer trends - including how this landscape is shifting due to the pandemic. The following professors can speak to what we will see this season around shifts in consumer behavior, how brands will adjust their advertising and promotions, the impact of tech while shopping, and more.

Topics include:

Perception vs. reality on advertising and promotions:

• Top ad campaigns of the holiday season: Professor Tülin Erdem chair of Stern’s Marketing Department, analyzes winners and losers in this year’s marketing campaigns.
• The truth around free shipping + limited-time offers: Professor Priya Raghubir demystifies retailer pricing strategies for shoppers.

The retail landscape during Covid:

• Has Covid killed brick & mortar? Professor Joel Steckel, co-author of Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast-Changing World, examines why so many retailers fail to stay relevant, and how retailers will need to adjust to social distancing guidelines in what would normally be wall-to-wall shopping.
• The pandemic didn’t create problems, it exposed them. Professor Russell Winer explains the latest consumer trends, breaks down the holiday retail landscape and explains that coronavirus didn’t create retail’s problems, it just brought vulnerable companies to the surface.
• Are luxury products still a priority? Professor Thomaï Serdari, a strategist in luxury marketing and branding, shares insights on luxury marketing and new retail strategies during Covid.
• How has behavior shifted in the past year? Professor Tom Meyvis discusses how the pandemic has not only shifted behaviors, but also created a desire for normalcy. He also explains that the end of the year may be a time when people start making post-pandemic purchases, like future travel.
• The importance of Small Business Saturday during the pandemic: Professor Jeffrey Carr discusses how startups and small businesses can maximize sales opportunities this season.
• How will social justice impact purchasing? Professor Geeta Menon, dean emeritus of Stern’s Undergraduate College, explains perceived authenticity of brands, and how that impacts brand loyalty.
• Sustainability survives the Coronavirus: Professor Tensie Whelan, director of NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business, shows that sustainability-marketed products are responsible for more than half of the growth in CPGs from 2015 to 2019, and that this growth continues despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

All things tech:

• Screens compel us to overspend: Professor Adam Alter, author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, offers insights into how tech companies ensure that we’ll overspend at the holiday time.
• Will Cyber Monday be more dominant than ever? Professor Anindya Ghose, author of Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy, examines how voice-activated shopping devices (voice AI) are gaining in popularity, and how retailers might leverage them in a year when people are shopping less in-person.
• Comparison shopping online: Professor Jared Watson investigates how consumers use online reviews to form preferences.