Yahoo Finance Will Retailers Raise Toast to Great Holiday Sales This Year?
Retailers count days until the holiday season as eagerly as shoppers look out for eye-popping bargains. No wonder the season, which accounts for a sizeable chunk of yearly revenues and profits, is a make or break time for retailers. With only a couple of months left for the festivities to begin, retail bellwethers from Amazon AMZN to Walmart WMT are sure pulling up socks to make a haul this upcoming season.
Indeed, this time around, retailers are especially upbeat with Americans looking more confident on an improving employment scene, tax reforms and rising wages. It also appears that, consumer spending — one of the prime factors shaping the economy — will remain strong in the months ahead. Considering these bullish aspects, industry experts believe that retailers may clink glasses to great holiday sales.
Deloitte’s recent holiday sales projection of a 5-5.6% increase hints at happy times ahead for retailers. Holiday sales, excluding motor vehicles and gasoline, are likely to be more than $1.10 trillion between November 2018 and January 2019. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales are estimated to improve 17-22% to reach $128-$134 billion.
Retailers are ready to walk the extra mile to woo bargain hunters, through various means like early-hour store openings, huge discounts, smart promotional efforts and free shipping on online purchases. Meanwhile, retail giants such as Target TGT, Macy's M and Gap GPS have announced hiring plans to better cope with a busy holiday season.
Per media reports, Target intends to employ 1,20,000 associates, showing a 20% increase from the prior year. Gap is likely to take on approximately 65,000 seasonal associates, while Macy's intends to hire around 80,000 seasonal workers.
Retailers are also deploying resources to enhance omni-channel capacities, introducing brands, remodeling or refurbishing stores and expanding same-day delivery options to expedite the shopping process this holiday season. Additionally, retailers are rationalizing supply chain, improving store-related technology and augmenting ship-from-store capabilities.
The retail landscape has been undergoing a fundamental change for quite some time now with technology playing a major role, as the focus shifts to online shopping on growing dominance of Amazon. As consumers’ shopping and spending patterns are changing, retailers are fast embracing the omni-channel mantra to provide a seamless shopping experience this holiday season, whether in stores or online or through smartphones via apps.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
The Gap, Inc. (GPS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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Macy's, Inc. (M) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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