Holiday Gift Shopping Wrapped Up on a High Note
By David Moin, Jeanne E. Palmieri
Retailers appeared on track to meet or even beat their holiday sales expectations based on robust foot traffic, resilient consumer spending and controlled price promoting.
Mother Nature brought a blast of cold weather to Eastern and Midwestern cities in the final days before Christmas, spurring sales of seasonal merchandise and furthering the industry consensus that retailers will emerge from the holiday season in good shape.
Through November and December, price promotions were kept in check, typically 25 to 40 percent off, occasionally up to 60 percent, and inventories were well managed, maintaining the right balance between comp sales gains and inventory growth. It’s been a steady holiday run that saw significant turnouts at stores and malls. . . .
Upping the Forecast
. . . “Super Saturday was the coldest and snowiest Super Saturday in New York City in over 10 years,” said Evan Gold, executive vice president of Planalytics, which helps retailers plan their inventories based on its weather forecasting. “Average temperature in New York City was 28 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 9 degrees colder than the last Super Saturday and we had the first snowfall on Super Saturday in the city since 2016. Boston, Atlanta and Nashville were also the coldest in over 10 years with each market trending 10 to 15 degrees colder than last year. Chicago and Minneapolis were their coldest since 2016, and Miami was at its coldest since 2018.
“The weekend featured the first snowfall of the season in major East Coast markets, but it was not traffic-limiting,” Gold added.
In fact, the snowfall, combined with frigid temperatures, likely helped get consumers into a winter mindset while they were doing last-minute shopping. This was great news for retailers looking to sell cold weather gear to holiday shoppers. Demand spiked for boots, gloves, hats, outerwear and sweaters, as well as hot foods and drinks. Mall traffic was up, while outlet center traffic dipped due to the extreme cold.
“January will feature regional [weather] trends although the East Coast and Great Lakes are likely to be colder than last year, which will help demand for clearance of cold weather categories,” Gold predicted. “Warmth will be focused in the central regions and parts of the Northwest and Southwest, helping store traffic on a year-over-year basis.”
Holiday 2024 Trends
- Consumers keenly value-oriented.
- Strong weekend shopper traffic compensates for compressed calendar.
- Apparel and gift cards among bestselling categories.
- Black Friday deals weeks before the actual date attract consumers.
- Retailers on track for low to mid single-digit gains.