It is so late in the holiday season that experts are almost done giving tardy gift-buyers last-minute advice. For those who do not care whether they give their gifts on Christmas, many items will cost less in January. Even people who shop just before Christmas can find discounts if they look carefully. RetailMeNot.com says this can help people avoid heavy debt loads accumulated during the holidays.
The largest retailers are offering deepening discounts ahead of Christmas Day. Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has discounts of as much as 60% on some toys and games, but they are only valuable for one-day shipping or in-store pickup, with just a few hours left. Not to be bested, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has cut prices on some of its Alexa-powered hardware by as much as 50%. Some of its “last-minute” gifts are cut by 50% as well.
The largest retailers’ discounts have been followed by others. This is a double edge sword for many of them. The theory is that the need for retailers to offload inventory and drive their top lines is bad for them and good for consumers. Without any question, the consumer part of the equation is accurate. J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) is pushing discounts as high as 30% and free shipping for as little as orders over $49. Once again, it may be so late that people have to go to stores. The company’s net income to revenue ratios has been razor-thin recently, after a number of quarterly losses. How much thinner can they get? In fact, J.C. Penney may not make it to early next year still intact. Kmart is also discounting some items as much as 30%. Sears stores are equally aggressive, offering 25% discounts for shoppers who spend over $75 on some items — online only.
Barring any last-minute problems, 2019 should be one of the most successful shopping seasons on record, especially for American retailers. Cyber Monday, in particular, was a sign of consumer strength. Consumers spent nearly $9.5 billion on December 2, up 20%. E-commerce has become so critical to industry totals that it may have been a rising tide that lifted all boats.
Data from FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service show that the busiest shipping day of the year fell on December 14 or 15, but expect traffic to say high until tomorrow. The National Retail Federation announced that over Thanksgiving weekend, only 9% of people had finished their shopping. The number of people who have done no shopping at all has to be nearing zero.
With just one day until Christmas, every retailer is battling toward the end of the shopping season. However, for some, it may be their last. At the very least, some of them face the shuttering of more stores.
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