We’re expecting U.S. holiday shopping 2018 to set records. Including online sales. How does $1 trillion sound? For retailers, it’s a great sound. Ka-ching. 🙂
U.S. Holiday Shopping 2018 to Set Records
Not only is holiday shopping 2018 expected to set sales records. But we also expect the highest percentage sales increase in several years.
As eMarketer reports:
“This holiday season (November 1-December 31), total retail sales in the US will increase 5.8% to $1.002 trillion. This will be the first time holiday sales cross the $1 trillion mark. And 2018 shows the strongest growth since 2011. Spending momentum will get an added boost from a favorable holiday calendar. It features the maximum 32 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“Some economic headwinds will begin to form after mostly blue skies in 2018. Yet, we expect their effects to be muted until after the holidays. Retailers have built up inventories for products affected by tariffs on imports from China. As a result, they will not pass on notable price increases to consumers until 2019.”
The holiday shopping season is always an interesting time for us marketers. The changes in promotions, advertisements and ways companies make their deals stick out changes each year. It doesn’t surprise me that the expected retail sales will continue to increase going into this season. It has almost become a part of our culture to be a part of the hustle of holiday shopping. I am excited to see a forecasted increase in brick-and-mortar sales as well. Even though it makes up a majority of holiday sales, the increased reliance consumers have on Amazon and online shopping overall will have a continued impact on this.
I am interested to see how much of an increase in sales there actually be this year for Black Friday and if it will be as much as they say they are expecting. I think another possible reason for this increase is that stores are opening earlier and earlier every year on thanksgiving to accommodate all the people and sell as much for their Black Friday sales as possible. I think online shopping is also increasing heavily and is becoming more popular for shoppers and might have an impact on the money shoppers choose to spend on retail shopping this Black Friday.
I personally am not surprised that record sales of up to $1 trillion are expected for this coming Black Friday. Between the economy rising and the increasing reliability on technology and online shopping, it does not sound improbable that records will likely be broken. In addition, stores seem to start earlier and earlier each year when it comes to revealing and starting Black Friday sales, so the time interval increases when taking into consideration what counts as “Black Friday sales”. I am very interested to see what the amount of sales will end up being for this upcoming Black Friday and how much the percentage of actual sales will increase.
For the whole shopping season, not just Black Friday. 🙂
I’m not surprised that retail sales can total $1 trillion. Holidays are the time where majority of people shop because lots of them wait for promotions for black friday. There is also a lot of hype in the young adult world for designers and various trends which increases retail sales. Online shopping, such as Amazon allows consumers to spend more money because everything is available without going to crowded malls. Due to stores opening earlier and closing later, this impacts retails sales as well.
Retail sales crossing over $1 trillion this holiday season is not surprising. More and more people are shopping on black Friday and afterwards when big sales are still present. I think people have been planning better when buying gifts because they realize black Friday and cyber Monday has the best deals. However, sales coming to a halt once holidays are over is not surprising either because after the holidays there is no reason for people to keep purchasing items since the holidays are over.
I believe that a large reason why sales continue to increase more and more every year is because stores are opening earlier and earlier. When sales start before Thanksgiving is even over, of course companies will make more money. I also believe that this generation is more into having material things. It is always about who has the best this and who has more of that, so of course they are going to spend more on things just to make themselves look good. I also find it interesting that most of the time a company is telling you there is a “deal,” there isn’t really any discount in price. They just say that to make their product more appealing even of it is still at an inflated cost.
Honestly, I am not surprised retail sales will cross $1 trillion this holiday season. Every year, more people go out to shop on Black Friday, and now that online shopping is rapidly increasing, the amount of people that will be shopping on Cyber Monday could be an unbelievable amount. I’ve realized that deals are opened before the day of thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday deals are open the weekend before, therefore, giving people more time to shop so they can spend more. I would like to see by the end of the year how much the percentage of sales increase, which I believe will be by a lot.