Retailers started offering Black Friday sales early

Today is Black Friday — the biggest day of the year for retailers across the country, but this year’s sales have already started off a bit differently.

Retailers across the nation began their Black Friday “specials” particularly early, this year, likely in hopes of having a fruitful holiday season and attracting customers who want to get an early start on holiday shopping.

Many, such as Target and Macy’s, began offering “Black Friday” discounts as early as October. They have continued to roll out other enticing sales since that time. But has it been enough to get people through the doors?

With inflation at an all-time high, it’s possible that some consumers began shopping early, but it’s more likely that most will simply cut back on gift-giving, this year.

Consumers aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch from inflation. Retailers are suffering too. Their fixed costs remain high and revenue is shrinking, according to Pirya Raghubir, a professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

“So they can’t afford to offer deep deals,” she said in a Nerd Wallet report.

In fact, many experts say that while retailers will tout plenty of bargains, the savings might not live up to the hype.

“I think that we will see higher prices, this year, than we have in the past, and certainly promotions can try to help offset that,” Heather Dougherty, vice president of success at Lexer, a customer data platform for retailers, told NerdWallet.

The report said the impact will be subtle, such as higher delivery fees and consumers getting less for their money. Shipping backlogs and product shortages may also surface again, making the holiday season that much more challenging. Raghubir said the entire supply chain is currently at “huge question mark” because of the war in Ukraine and how it’s impacted the price of oil and gas and supply lines from China.

It seems that retailers were anticipating the issues that could lie ahead and got a head start on rolling out their specials. Consumers who were in the market for a deal had plenty of choices. Now we just have to wait and see if the early gamble paid off.