2007 Thanksgiving Weekend’s Sales Results
Retailers are reporting better than expected results for Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving. Sales were up an unexpected 8.3% over last year to $10.1 billion for the day, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp. However, the average customer expenditure was lower. For many retailers, Black Friday represents 5% of their total Christmas volume, and up to 10% of all shopping purchases are said to occur over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Nielsen Online reported that Internet traffic to major retailers grew 10% over the previous year, representing more than 21.2 million unique visitors spread across 120 online retailers. We hope that our catalog and e-commerce clients shared in this good weekend.
What was interesting was that traditional retailers were using web-based strategies to lure shoppers. Macy’s, for example, bought sponsored links for key words such as cashmere (men’s cashmere was to expire 11-26-07, but overnight was extended until 12/6/07), Cuisinart, boots (women’s), coat (was to expire 11-26-07 but was extended until 12/6/07). Given the general nature of several of those keywords, that strategy could get pretty pricey. Macy’s offered free shipping for online orders of over $90 on coats and over $99 on cashmere.
Stores were crowded with shoppers lured by huge percent-off ads and coupons. Free shipping and handling offers abounded in the week leading up to Thanksgiving. My Inbox—like yours, I’m sure—has been jammed full for weeks with offers of deep discounts and free shipping in an effort to jumpstart shopping.
Many of the businesses we talk to continue to be very soft. ShopperTrak estimates customer visits to stores will drop 2.5 percent this holiday season, which covers the 32 days between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday helped, but most businesses need several strong weeks to have a chance at making plan. One day doesn’t make the season.
In this holiday season that is projected to be the weakest since 2002, it’s better to offer free shipping and processing than to be stuck with the merchandise. While I don’t like it, it’s the lesser of two evils.
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F. Curtis Barry & Co., an operations and fulfillment consulting firm, uses best practices to recommend and implement order management systems for multichannel businesses.
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