Black Friday: Mixed Results Leaves Retailers Wondering

Black Friday attracted an impressive number of holiday shoppers, but the bargain hunters spent less than the average shopper last year.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Black Friday sales came in only slightly above the last year’s Black Friday spending. That would have been encouraging if the shopping spree had continued though the weekend. Unfortunately, the turn-out dropped considerably as the weekend progressed Accordingly, the NFR projects a 1 percent decline in overall holiday sales for this year. Making matters worse, the Wall Street journal reported Videogame sales as being in a slump, and running out of steam before the holiday shopping got underway.

In recent years, Video Games have become the bright spot for retailers’ 4th quarter sales. The hottest games and consoles are used to lure shoppers into stores, which created the opportunity for retailers to entice shoppers to make larger purchases. Although retailers are still using video games as a way to attract consumers, video games and console sales fell nearly 19% in October. It should be noted that the last three months of the year account for over 50% of Video game sales, therefore, October is a good predictor for what can be expected the last quarter.

That being said, the realization that sales may not be what retailers had hoped, they looked to Cyber Monday for enhanced holiday sales. Accordingly, stores shifted their discount focus online. Promotions were in high gear for Cyber Monday in an effort to drive revenues up. Needless to say, competition for online shoppers has accelerated this week. The silver lining comes into view, with on-line results beginning to trriggle in. The numbers came in from Coremetrics (a Marketing Optimization Company) which shows a 35% increase in online shopping this weekend, over last year. This may be just the kind of up-tick retailers need to pull off a great 4th Quarter.

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K. Reilly
Cohn-Reilly Report / News Flash