As the holiday retail season begins, so does the savage rivalry among large companies in the sector. According to new research from WalletHub, among the 30 largest retailers, the average discount for all product categories on Black Friday will be 40.2%. Among these, J.C. Penney Co Inc. (NYSE: JCP) has the highest average discount of 68.0%.
As a demonstration of its price leverage, probably due to its size and customer base, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) ranks 28th on the list, with average discounts of 25.8%. Big-box retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) ranked last in terms of discount size at 19.5%.
Wallethub’s research method covers a large base of data and was taken in part from BlackFriday.com.
In order to identify the retailers with the most and least money-saving bargains this coming Black Friday, WalletHub surveyed 8,000 deals from 30 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2015 Black Friday ad scans and calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The average discount was weighted based on the pre-discounted price of the item in order to give more credit to the retailers that are discounting higher-ticket items. Our sample excludes deals that did not have calculable percentage markdowns.
The other retailers offering average discounts above 60% were Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) at 66.7%, Stage Stores Inc. (NYSE: SSI) at 63.9% and Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) at 63.7%. Among those with the lowest discounts were Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (NYSE: WMT) Sam’s Club at 24.9%.
The most trouble retailers tend to be those offering among the largest discounts: Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) at 56.0%, Sears Holdings Corp.’s (NASDAQ: SHLD) Kmart at 50.1%, the Sears division of the holding company at 41.7%. The largest brick-and-mortar retailer, Wal-Mart has a modest discount average of 30.1%.
With discounts at this level, the retailers may attract customers, but will they be able to make money?
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