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With little crowds and none of the stampedes of the past holidays, some retail observers began referring to Black Friday as Blasé Friday, and that was even before the virus hit.
After debuting and expanding online services during the pandemic, from video chats to in-car order picking, retailers are now testing how well the new options work in the busiest and most crucial shopping part of the year. . Brands also extended their promotions longer this year, with many starting in October. If the industry can produce a solid fourth quarter during a recession and pandemic, it’s hard to see it go back to old ways.
“Black Friday became Black November; now it’s Black October and Black November, ”said Doug Stephens, founder of consulting firm Retail Prophet. “Soon, we will be seeing a Black Quarter.”
So far, the Black Friday weekend has yielded mixed results. Thanksgiving Day online spending was nearly $ 1 billion lower than forecast in the US, according to Adobe Analytics. But an online sales record could be set on Friday with as much as $ 9.6 billion, he said, only to be dwarfed by Cyber Monday, when sales could hit $ 13 billion.
The holiday season is still expected to outperform last year thanks to higher savings rates and higher disposable income, according to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners.
“It’s like $ 1.2 billion worth of dry powder to spend on Christmas,” Johnson helps.
GameStop was up 9% after shoppers lined up at its stores for the hit item of the season: new game consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods, rose 11%, easily the biggest gain on the S&P 500.
The visits to the stores seemed mediocre. A decade ago, Black Friday was defined by long lines of shoppers waiting to enter malls and Walmart stores. That intensity has waned over the years and slowed to a trickle in 2020. Many Americans are wary of public places during the resurgent pandemic.
Scarce purchases
Inside the Macy’s Inc. flagship in Manhattan, it felt like a normal day, rather than what is supposed to be the busiest shopping event of the year. In the past, the location had a customer boom amid television news crews.
At Atlanta’s Atlantic station, the scene was mixed. Around noon, the Dillard’s had just a handful of shoppers pacing the aisles as groups of employees approached eagerly, ready to help. Meanwhile, Bath & Body Works was packed with customers, and adjacent Victoria’s Secret had a queue. Even the feisty Banana Republic was filled. At Old Navy, an employee ran out the door to deliver an online order to the waiting car for a customer.
“Curbside pickup will be safely maintained,” said Deloitte Vice President Rod Sides. “It will continue to grow over time.”
The biggest buzz in many malls came at GameStop, where customers lined up for a chance to buy a PlayStation 5 or the latest Xbox. Newly released video game consoles have been hard to find.
But even these scenes reflect the broader shift toward e-commerce. Resellers using software, often called bots, were absorbing inventory online and listing it for sale on the secondary market at twice the label price or more, according to reports. So camping was the best opportunity for many.
All night
At a quarter to twelve on Thanksgiving, Daniel Buffenbarger, a 32-year-old man from Ludington, Michigan, tried his luck online. He failed three times at Walmart.com to get the new PlayStation, which he planned as a Christmas present for himself. He also entered an online queue at the website for Meijer, a Midwestern supermarket that also sells electronics. When he saw that 222,000 people were in front of him, he doubted his possibilities. But around 6 a.m., after being up all night, he uploaded his number and made the purchase.
“It was a pleasure,” said Buffenbarger, who works as a cook at a KFC and scheduled a store pickup for his PlayStation later Friday. “It made my tiredness go away.”
Many retailers have implemented video calling and other one-to-one communication options during the pandemic, and shoppers continued to use them throughout Black Friday. At Chico’s FAS Inc., store employees are virtually reaching out to customers to show them new shoes and jackets, according to CEO Molly Langenstein.
“It’s another way of reaching out to customers, especially on the Black Friday weekend, and looking for customers who are not comfortable walking into a store,” Langenstein said in an interview.
Ultimately, the benefits of shopping in person are still a draw for some. At International Plaza and the Bay Street Mall in Tampa, Florida, Christine Able wanted to buy the only item she couldn’t find online: a Lululemon gift for her son that had been sold out on the website. With digital options failing, he woke up early to queue before the store opened at 9 a.m.
Joe Cavaliere, who lives in Pensacola, Florida, was in the Tampa area on vacation and bought the Louis Vuitton store to get his wife a handbag that he couldn’t find at her local mall.
“I like the experience of walking into the store,” he said. “I don’t know what I will get when I buy something online. I like to see exactly what I’m buying. “
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