It will be down to holiday procrastinators to save the bottom lines of retailers, according to sales data.
Sales were up 1.8 percent from Nov. 1 through this past Monday compared to last year, which is a modest gain that is not in line with the National Retail Federation’s expectation that sales for the entire season will be up 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion, according to an Associated Press report.
In order to jumpstart sales, retailers have tried a number of tactics, including offering “holiday” deals as far back as Halloween to try to get people spending before Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving. Stores also opened on Thanksgiving Day to get consumers’ wallets open sooner.
However, these incentives don’t appear to be working. Although shoppers did take advantage of them, it simply meant a decrease in sales on Black Friday, and overall numbers that were lower than expected. That means the last few days before Christmas will be critical.
Retailers are now pulling out all the stops to get consumers into the stores. Hhgregg, for example, is creating a “buy more, save more” sales event that will end this week, and it is extending the cutoff date for online shoppers picking up their gifts until noon Christmas Eve, a day later than it was last year.
Macy’s and Toys R Us meanwhile are offering shopping hours into the evening on Christmas Eve. Kohl’s will be open for 132 hours straight, compared to 108 hours last year.
There is likely a lot of shopping to be done, and this weekend may end up being the biggest shopping period of the year. A survey of more than 6,000 shoppers conducted by the retail trade group found that only 52.9 percent of consumers had completed holiday shopping.
