This year, shoppers preferred to postpone their purchases and go straight to the store to search for Christmas gifts rather than the “Black Friday” breakout items.
On the last Saturday before Christmas, commonly known as “Super Saturday” in the retail industry, the number of shoppers appearing in stores was slightly lower than a year ago. But the drop was not as big as the Black Friday after Thanksgiving.
In fact, shoppers in the Northeast had a hard time finding parking at shopping centers on Saturday as the snow began to melt from the Great East Storm earlier in the week. Combined with long lines outside stores due to traffic restrictions and sold-out board games and toys on some shelves, these are signs that the familiar holiday scene for retailers may be seeing a slight return even as the recovery from the start of the summer stumbles and the number of cases of the new crown (CCA virus) spikes.
RetailNext, which provides cameras, software and analytics tools to retailers, said the number of shoppers on Super Saturday was down 40.9% compared to 2019. By comparison, Black Friday traffic was down 48 percent this year compared to last year.
Black Friday is usually the busiest shopping day of the year, followed by Super Saturday. This year, due to the new crown epidemic, many retailers over Thanksgiving weekend didn’t feel much competition for flat-screen TVs and kitchen appliances. Instead, the holiday season started earlier than usual, with retailers from Walmart to Kohl’s offering discounts early in October to attract consumers and spread out consumer spending.
More shopping is also shifting to the Web, but it’s getting harder to get packages in time for Christmas. According to Adobe Analytics, Super Saturday e-commerce sales reached $1.6 billion, up 29.8% year-over-year. That’s because more shoppers are ordering items from retailers’ websites and choosing curbside pickup. Some retailers, like J.C. Penney and Barnes & Noble, are offering incentives to shoppers who use this option.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) survey showed that 54 percent of consumers said they had not completed their holiday shopping before Super Saturday and planned to shop in the last week before Christmas.
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