Shoppers, get set: Black Friday’s here
And they’re off. The holiday shopping frenzy has officially begun with the five-day stretch that started on Thanksgiving Day and crosses the finish line Cyber Monday.
In the age of Amazon, retailers are increasingly turning to tech to make shopping, whether online or in an actual store, as quick and simple as possible.
This year marks the first time Macy’s will have mobile checkout at all of its stores. The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta also are equipping employees at most locations with devices to check out customers on the spot.
And at Walmart, a digital map within the store app will pinpoint the exact lo-
cation where a customer can find the doll or sweater they’re looking for. The map will be color coded for Black Friday to make the search even simpler.
During the holidays, “we have every register open,” says Tony Amirikhass, store manager for a Walmart near Los Angeles in Southgate. “Our baskets are very large. We’re a high volume store, and it takes three to five minutes per transaction. So yeah, there’s a big time saving.”
Such shortcuts are critical. A survey by consultancy Deloitte found that 27 percent of those polled would tap into alternate checkout options – such as using a smartphone to scan and pay for purchase as they shop, or buying online, then picking the gift up at a store – to skip long check out lines.
And while shoppers should check because store hours may vary, those willing to brave the cold started grabbing doorbusters before the sun comes up Friday.
There’s a lot of money on the line. Nearly 20 percent of retail sales last year occurred during the holiday season, and it’s expected that shoppers will spend roughly $717 billion to $721 billion this year, an uptick of 4.3 percent to 4.8 percent over 2017, according to the National Re- tail Federation.
Black Friday has waned in recent years, its power dulled as such retailers as Walmart, Amazon and J.C. Penney launch holiday sales days or weeks earlier, with many stores opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day.
A number of retailers flung open their doors before the dishes were cleared from the holiday feast. “Shopping on Thanksgiving is fine as long as you get to do it with your family,” Marlina Kozdra said.
The 34-year-old stay-at-home mom of West Orange, N.J., went to New York City to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with her family, but then went hunting for deals.
At the peak, Shopify merchants worldwide generated more than $250,000 in sales per minute on Thanksgiving, according to the ecommerce company’s data as of 5 p.m. EST. The average shopping cart order was $80.78 and clothes and shoes were the most popular items. In the U.S., the states that spent the most were California, Texas and New York.
A Target store in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was moderately populated with Thanksgiving Day shoppers about an hour after opening. Parking wasn’t so bad, said Elizabeth Schreiber-Byers, a professor from Fairfax, Virginia, but that didn’t make check out any less painful.
“It’s like the worst Disneyland ride ever.“