Yahoo Finance Brick-and-mortar retailers are getting it all wrong this holiday season: trader
By Alan Valdes, director of floor operations at Silverbear
Shopping anyone?
Well Black Friday weekend saw 99.1 million Americans make the annual pilgrimage to the mall. However, fighting for that cherished parking space may have been a little easier, according to the National Federation of Retailers.
Brick-and-mortar sales were down -3.7% from Black Friday weekend a year ago. RetailNext, another analytics firm, reports sales on Thursday and Friday were down -5.0%, and all transactions over that two-day period were down -7.9%. As for those early-bird specials at the brick-and-mortars—well, they may want to start thinking over that strategy.
The National Federation of Retailers reports that 29% of shoppers arrive at the mall after 10:00 a.m. as opposed to the only 15% before 6:00 am. Mall shoppers reported that 100% of their purchases were all “on sale” products. However, one savvy shopper I spoke to informed me that she noticed some items were priced lower last month and that—even with the sale price—were the same or higher now.
Are the days of fighting for parking spots, waiting in long check-out lines, and hunting for sales over? Doubtful, but it’s certain that “the times, they are a changing!”
Online shopping is now more popular than in-store, with 72% of Americans clicking on 108.5 million sales this weekend alone. When polled, these shoppers admitted that they planned to spend their money on online instead of only 64% who chose brick and mortar (of course, many do both).
Amazon still killing it
Amazon (AMZN), the king of online shopping, reports processing 659 packages a second, all weekend. Cyber Monday alone came in with $3.39 billion over total internet sales, beating last year’s record of $3.34 billion. Sales for Cyber Monday were up 10.7% from the same day last year.
The most popular online items were iPads, Paw Patrol and electric scooters. Perhaps the biggest change in shopping habits has been with mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Sales on Black Friday reported a 33% increase from Black Friday last year to $1.2 billion this year on these devices alone.
Does the Black Friday weekend really carry the same cachet it did five years ago? Most retailers plan to have sales up through Christmas Eve (which is usually when I shop), and some online outlets are extending Cyber Monday sales all week. Judging by many consumers polled over this past weekend, 91% admitted to not having completed their shopping and feel discounts may get better, if inventory lasts, right up until mid-December.
So there is still time to get that electric scooter and maybe throw in a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card for that stocking!
Back to the markets
Meanwhile, back here on Wall Street, we are getting ready for a busy week. Stocks took a breather yesterday as the Dow (^DJI) fell-0.3%, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) -0.5%, and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) rounded off the big three by coming in lower at -0.6%.
Today we got second estimates for Q3 GDP, which show gains of 3.2% versus early estimates of 2.9%. Tomorrow we get a read on personal income and consumer spending. On Thursday, we get ISM, and Friday brings us the November employment numbers.
OPEC also meets Wednesday, and traders are waiting for a possible agreement out of Vienna. However, judging by the fluctuations in the oil prices the last few days (West Texas intermediate futures are down -3.5% to $45.32 a barrel), don’t look for too much of a cut in production, if any at all.
