Sales are already strong from the holiday weekend.
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So why shouldn’t bosses just give in and allow their workers to participate in the most lucrative online shopping day in history? Online sales for the 5-day period starting with the Thanksgiving Day totaled $11.11 million, up 17 percent year-over-year, with Cyber Monday alone accounting for $3.07 billion. Adobe will release final figures on Tuesday. (AMZN). The e-commerce giant started its holiday deals November 1 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retailers-push-early-start-to-black-friday-sales-2016-11-24-114852133), promising to offer new discounts daily up to December 22. The company claims to measure up to 80% of all online transactions from the top 100 retailers in the United States. Of every $10 spent at the top 500 USA retailers, $7.50 goes through the Adobe Marketing Cloud sales platform. “Looking ahead, we expect Cyber Monday 2016 to surpass $2.5 billion in desktop spending and $1 billion on mobile commerce to become the leading online spending day for the seventh straight year as people use down time at work to continue their holiday gift buying”.
Online spending hit a new record this past Black Friday, surpassing the $3 billion mark for the first time.
Black Friday is quickly losing its title thanks to online retailers, and Cyber Monday could be headed in the same direction. “You kind of have to weigh the “get up early, stand in line and hope to be the first person there” with the ‘Oh I can go buy it now, ‘ even though it may be a little bit more expensive”, she said.
The Gap family, which includes Banana Republic and Old Navy, is offering 50% off sitewide. The increase in online sales shows customers’ desire to avoid wading through packed malls and retail stores.
Store traffic over the holiday shopping weekend was about 2 percent higher compared previous year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.
Lore will be expected to turn Walmart’s stores and supply chain expertise into a real advantage over Amazon.
Traffic trends were healthy at footwear maker UGG, owned by Decker’s Outdoor Corp DECK.N , and Gap Inc GPS.N , the biggest surprises, Jefferies & Co analysts said in a client note. The shift from PCs and laptops to cellular phones as gadgets used during online shopping is the reason why giant retailers with physical stores such as Kohl’s, J.C. Penney and Walmart spend a lot in developing their mobile shopping apps.
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“We knew it (holiday season) was going to be off to a slow start”, Shelley Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext, said.
