Using anonymized data pulled from Google Maps, the search company is predicting when and where we are most likely to shop during the 21015 holiday season, and some of those predictions are surprising. You may see this in the United Kingdom when looking for restaurants and bars.
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Furthermore, with a number of stores now opening their doors on Thanksgiving day, many shoppers appear to be pregaming their enormous dinners (or exercising post-huge lunch) by making a trip to various outlets. Traffic is the heaviest between 2 pm and 4 pm, so you’ll be better off shopping in the morning or in the evening to beat the crowds. Fortunately, with a little research, your phone in hand and the right apps, you have all the tools you need for planning what you’re going to buy and finding the best possible deals – even while waiting in line at the stores. “There are a lot of people here and we want to make sure you have a happy shopping experience”. Many stores show in-store availability on their websites. However, retailers than have the lowest foot traffic include shopping malls, department stores (think Macys, Lord & Taylor), super stores (think Walmart, K-Mart) and dollar stores (think Dollar Tree, Lot Less). Electronics stores and cell phone stores have their highest foot traffic on Black Friday: Electronics stores see 2x as much foot traffic than other weekends during the holiday season and cell phone stores see 1.6x as much foot traffic. In fact, the number of “affluent” shoppers was actually down 11 per cent on an average Christmas shopping trip.
When Black Friday starts to roll around, every company wants to jump on the bandwagon, including tech firms. Especially when it comes to dollar stores, Christmas Eve is by far the busiest day, as the ultimate procrastinators emerge from their dens to hunt for truly last-minute deals.
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With up to 30 percent of all shopping purchases now taking place via mobile, shoppers would do well to utilize their cellphones to speed up a shopping trip. 97 are being discounted, an asterisk means that the item will be discontinued and you should stock up. Either way, you’ll spend a lot less time wondering where to find a FitBit.
