A nation of shoppers hunt for Black Friday deals

“My family, we celebrate Black Friday”.

And despite forecasts indicating thatclose to half of US consumers plan to skip Black Friday or its digital sibling Cyber Monday this year, Jeff Gennette, who will replace Lundgren at the end of the first quarter of 2017, dismissed the suggestion that the rise of digital commerce and online sales events would render in-store Black Friday shopping obsolete. Target put its Black Friday deals online Wednesday and said it sold 3,200 televisions a minute during the first hour that doors were open.

The National Retail Federation reported about one year ago that more than 103 million Americans shopped online during Thanksgiving Weekend 2015, compared to almost 102 million who shopped in stores.

Happy shopping – wherever the deals might take you.

One big reason we are spending less time shopping is that instead of going to physical stores we are buying items online.

At Petco on Black Friday, show your Pals Rewards loyalty card and purchase something in order to get a “funky headdress” for your kitty or doggy from the DreamWorks Trolls Pet Fans Collection.

Shoppers continued to mill about the mall throughout Friday.

Gordon Fletcher, retail expert at the University of Salford, said that while “post-Thanksgiving holiday urgency” drives the day in the United States, the bubble may have burst across the pond.

Retailers, however, say carefully planned and targeted promotions with global suppliers allow them to achieve a sales boost while maintaining profit margins. This year I’m on the hunt for deals online to buy in brick-and-mortar stores, rather make the purchase online, which I have not done in the past six years. However, if crafts aren’t your bag you can never go wrong with John Lewis – they’re also setting up to do some great Black Friday deals this year. It’s busy. It’s noisy. As we keep changing these (shopping) trends, the crowds keep changing.

But if you imagine that Black Friday sales are a stampede into the store followed by a “Lord of the Flies”-esque grab for the last Star Wars toy, you’re mistaken”. Retailers have also been spreading deals out more throughout the week which may have diluted the shopping. This can be used to improve shopper engagement by testing different store layouts and merchandising.

A lot of retailers have been open since 3 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock Thursday night. It’s also becoming an American export to other countries.

Beginning Thursday night and lasting allday Friday, crowds in places such as the Best Buy store in Signal Hill and Lakewood Center Mall made a decision to spend their holiday weekend spending money on gifts.

In other words, there’s no point anymore in running or trying to elbow anyone out of the way.

In the NY and Chicago areas, shoppers said stores were less busy than previous years on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. “If you valet park, you get a vehicle wash”.

The holiday shopping season, which runs through Christmas on December 25, can account for as much as 40 percent of retailers’ annual sales. But sometimes it seems people overestimate just how significant it is for retailers.

By using WiFi products capable in real time analytics of consumer activity, you can customise how you measure and calculate conversions based on what works best for you, whether you have 10 stores or 2000. They run massive sales, and in my experience, the lines usually move pretty quickly.