South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Big box retailers dangle early deals
It’s a short shopping season this year with Thanksgiving falling on the last Thursday of the month, six days less than last year. As always, retailers are trying to entice shoppers to spend their holiday dollars early by dangling free gift cards, early doorbuster deals and free one-day shipping through Christmas.
Shoppers are in a mood to spend more on gifts this year, according to the annual National Retail Federation holiday survey. It shows consumers will spend an average of $1,047. That’s up 4 percent from last year. More surprising, 39% will start their holiday shopping in November. The survey polled 7,782 adult consumers Oct. 1-10.
Sales are projected to rise 3.8% in November and December to $727.9 billion, and retailers are expected to import near-record volumes of merchandise ahead of tariffs scheduled to take effect on goods from China on Dec. 15, the NRF says. That will ease price increases for consumers.
Other interesting tidbits from the survey show 92% of consumers plan to take advantage of free shipping, 48% will use ship-to-store pick-up services, and 16% plan to use same-day delivery, which has doubled since 2015.
Big box retailers Best Buy, Target and Walmart are all offering free same-day shipping — touting that no membership is required, unlike Amazon — and special early deals to entice holiday shoppers to start spending now. There are less than 60 shopping days until Christmas.
Best Buy
Need toys? Snag a free $25 gift card with $100 toy purchase at BestBuy.com. The offer is good on select licensed merchandise and toy drones. Go to bit.ly/2omp0YC to place orders, and don’t forget to add the free gift card to your cart, while supplies last.
Best Buy also is offering free shipping with no minimum order through Dec. 25, the retailer announced Tuesday. It’s also offering free next-day delivery for thousands of qualifying products with a $35 minimum purchase.
Target
The retailer will offer hot deals and early access to select Black Friday doorbuster deals to members of its new Circle rewards program, introduced Oct. 6. Target app and Cartwheel users were automatically enrolled. It’s free to join at Circle.Target.com.
Starting Nov. 1, Target also will offer expanded free nextday and regular shipping with no minimum purchase required. Stores will hire extra
sales associates and workers in fulfillment centers, spending an extra $50 million in payroll, to assist customers during peak hours, the company said. It’s also stocking more than 10,000 new toys, and thousands of gifts for less than $15.
Walmart
The world’s largest retailer kicked off early deals and free shipping at Walmart.com on Friday, the earliest ever.
Shoppers can get hot deals on everything from electronics to toys and sporting goods while supplies last, according to a news release. Offers include $100 off VIZIO 55-inch Class M-Series Quantum 4K Ultra HDR Smart TV for $398, $25 off BouncePro 7-Foot My First Trampoline for $99 and $30 off Farberware 3.2 Quart Digital Oil-Less Fryer for $39
Like Best Buy and Target, Walmart also will offer free next-day delivery on hundreds of thousands of eligible items.
Taking a page out of Apple Retail stores’ playbook, Walmart will now offer “Check Out With Me” in all Supercenters. Customers can pay for items right where they are shopping and skip the line.
If they can’t find what they’re looking for, customers can place an online order in the store and items will be shipped to homes or stores for pickup.
The retailer also will host themed events around holiday movie releases, including “Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution” and “Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” Nov. 16-17 and “Frozen 2” Nov. 23-24, Walmart said.
Santa also will make stops at stores on Nov. 9 and Dec. 7.
Amazon
The king of all retail hasn’t yet announced its holiday plans yet. But after reporting third-quarter net sales of $70 billion on Thursday, it introduced Amazon Counter, a new network of pickup points, according to a news release.
The service is free for Prime members, who can now pop in at GNC, Health Mart and Stage stores to pick up packages, easing worry about porch pirates.
The new partnerships to the Amazon Hub are in addition to thousands of lockers sprinkled about nationwide. Find locations at Amazon.com/Locker.