MALLS GET STRONG START TO SEASON
Early deals draw bargain hunters
Parking lots were full and shopping bags were plentiful in some places this past weekend as holiday gift-seekers were out looking for bargains, even as competition among retailers to offer earlier deals and snag customers first has pulled sales forward.
At the Woodbury Common outlets north of New York City, retail expert Craig R. Johnson was impressed by how many people were there — though crowds were still not as heavy as several years ago before online shopping was such a draw.
“Some stores like Nike had like a hundred people in the checkout line,” said Johnson, president of consulting group Customer Growth Partners. “Virtually everyone there was carrying a bag — one or two or three or more.”
As shoppers said stores also seemed less crowded on Black Friday than in earlier years, data from Adobe Analytics, the research arm of software maker Adobe, showed that a record $5.03 billion was spent online by the end of the day, an increase of nearly 17 percent from a year earlier.
It said the top-selling items on Black Friday included the Nintendo Switch, Hatchimals and Colleggtibles toys, PJ Masks items, LOL Surprise dolls, Ride On Cars, as well as Chromecast and Roku streaming devices.
In addition to the online effect, Johnson cited the fact that more stores are opening on Thanksgiving, and that is “pulling” traffic from the holiday weekend. J.C. Penney stores opened at 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than last year and at least three hours ahead of its department store rivals. Many stores offered deals online all week.
Research firm Shopper-Trak said Saturday that preliminary data for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday found that shopper visits to brickand-mortar stores declined 1.6 percent when compared to the same days in 2016. It said the decision by some stores to close on Thanksgiving this year helped shift customer visits to other days.
Shoppers are expected to spend at least 3.6 percent more in November and December than they did last holiday season — in line with last year’s bump.