Special prices pull US shoppers to the shops over the weekend
Consumers and retailers in the US enjoyed a profitable shopping weekend, with shoppers responding to aggressive marketing tactics by retailers in their hunt for sales. Retailers are however still worried that the strong Black Friday weekend sales might not guarantee good sales for the remainder of holiday season. According to ShopperTrak, sales on Friday totaled to $10.3 billion, an increase of 8.3% over Black Friday sales last year. ShopperTrak is the leading monitor of sales and traffic at US retail stores.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the foremost retail association of the US, shoppers visiting stores rose by 4.8% over last years figures, however spending was down by 3.5% this year. Most years, the sales on Black Friday do not reflect the mood of the holiday shopper, so there is still time for sales to pick up further. The NRF forecasts that holiday sales will increase by 4% to an estimated $474.5 billion.
The main rush on Black Friday was due to aggressive price cutting tactics and special price promotions by retailers for that specific day. Today being Cyber Monday, retailers are switching their attention to special deals online, that people can access when they go back to work. The NRF estimates that 72% of online retailers will be offering special deals online, as compared to 42% in 2005.
Walmart.com is having special online deals not only for Cyber Monday but for the entire week. Usuallly, the busiest time for online shopping happens around three weeks before Christmas. According to Forester Research, online sales for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas will increase by 21% to $33billion this year.
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