It is late enough in the holiday season that experts have already begun to give 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 have begun to offer deep discounts ahead of Christmas. Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has discounts of as much as 60% on some toys and games. Its discounts on technology gifts are as high as 40%. It is also pushing gifts that can be delivered the day after they are ordered. 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.
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The largest retailers 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. 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. That assumes that all boats are the same, but earlier shopping season has proved again that they are not.
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 next week. The National Retail Federation announced that over Thanksgiving weekend, only 9% of people had finished their shopping. This means the December rush will be larger than usual because the number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas is as short as it can be.
With just nine days 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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