2019 Holiday Trends And News - Part 2 -10/9/19

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.  

Introduction

With your E-Commerce Retail Briefing for today, Wednesday, October 9th, 2019, I'm Vincent Phamvan.

According to a report from Coresight Research, holiday shopping could become less important for retailers. Ease of online shopping and constant deals throughout the year are taking shopper spend away from the months of November and December.

First, here are some retail headlines.

Holiday Spending Expected to Rise  

Holiday spending is expected to rise 5 percent this year. While consumers plan to spend more, they plan to spend their money differently than the year before. 53 percent of holiday shopping is expected to be done digitally. 20 percent of those sales are expected to be done on mobile devices. With more than half of holiday shoppers reporting that they spend more than three hours on their mobile devices, it’s not a surprise that spending habits would shift. The trend could affect shopping on big holidays like Black Friday. While Black Friday has traditionally been a day for brick-and-mortar, a report revealed that the number of consumers planning on shopping online is almost identical to the number of consumers planning to shop in-store.

Macy's Announces Holiday Hiring

Businesses are preparing for the holiday season ahead. Macy’s announced its aiming to hire on 80,000 new holiday workers at its Macy’s and Bloomingdale's stores. The company’s retail locations will account for a majority of the hires, but about 30,000 of the seasonal employees will be based in fulfillment facilities. While Macy’s prepares for a busy holiday season, UPS is also planning on hiring 100,000 seasonal employees to handle increased package volume. The company delivered over 762 million packages in 2017 during the peak holiday season and digital shopping is expected to reach an all-time high this year.

Consumers Willing to Wait for Deals to Buy Online

According to a survey, consumers are willing to hold off on purchasing items online to wait for deals. 45 percent of respondents said they plan to start their holiday shopping before November. For online shopping, 57 percent of those surveyed said they plan to spend the most during November and December. But when it comes to online shopping, respondents said they would wait or were willing to wait until Cyber Five Weekend or later to get last-minute deals.

Holidays Sales Becoming Less Important?

Are holiday sales becoming less important for retailers? While there will be an increase in holiday sales this year, Coresight Research said that holiday shopping is becoming less important for retailers. The holiday season accounted for more than 24 percent of all retailers’ sales in previous years but is closer to 21 percent today. And Coresight expects that number to continue shrinking.

Ease of online shopping and constant deal days throughout the year has contributed to the trend. Amazon’s Prime Day has led to retailers like Target and Walmart to offer discounts on popular items throughout the summer to remain competitive, pulling shopper’s spend from the months of November and December. Coresight is also predicting that 23 percent of all holiday sales will take place online this year, up from 2018.

If the trend continues, retailers could have the issue of ending up with too much inventory after the holiday season, leading to steeply discounted stock in January. The report from Coresight also noted that Thanksgiving comes late this year, meaning there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than 2018.  

Closing

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