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 Super Saturday - the last pre-Christmas Saturday, which fell on Dec.
20 this year - failed to make up for spotty performance this season.
That included a disappointing Black Friday, the day after the U.S.
Thanksgiving holiday that is typically one of the busiest shopping
days of the year.
"The past weekend will not save this holiday season," said Craig
Johnson, president of the retail and consumer product-oriented
private equity fund Customer Growth Partners. "But combined with
online sales, it would certainly save the year from being a dismal
one."
Johnson said if sales hold up in the next few days and the week
after Christmas, retailers may finish close to his company's
November and December forecast of 3.4 percent growth in store and
online sales. He estimates that Super Saturday weekend sales, which
include store and online, rose 2.5 percent to $42 billion this year.
The National Retail Federation (NRF), the leading industry trade
body, forecast a 4.1 percent rise in holiday sales this year,
including online and store sales. The NRF is hoping to meet its
expectations amid falling gasoline prices, lower U.S. unemployment
and consumer spending which showed signs of increasing during the
first two weeks of December.
Promotions heated up in the past five days but that did not boost
store traffic materially, said Keith Jelinek, senior managing
director of FTI Consulting.
Most retailers offered an additional 20 to 30 percent off on top of
30 to 40 percent discounts on a wide range of products, Reuters
found during a series of visits to three dozen stores in Chicago
over the weekend.
Best-sellers during the season included Apple Inc’s <AAPL.O> iPhone
6, toys based on the Walt Disney Co <DIS.N> animated movie "Frozen,"
and winter clothing such as coats from retailers like Macy’s Inc
<M.N> after a cold spell last month.
Home appliances including mixers, coffee makers and food processors
from chains like Home Depot Inc <HD.N>, Lowe’s Companies Inc <LOW.N>
JC Penney Co Inc <JCP.N> and Target Corp <TGT.N> were also
particularly popular, industry-watchers said.
WEAKER TRAFFIC
Super Saturday sales rose 0.5 percent to $9.15 billion from $9.1
billion a year ago, according to early estimates by ShopperTrak,
which surveys spending at brick-and-mortar stores. This fell short
of the firm's $10 billion sales forecast for the day, founder Bill
Martin told Reuters.
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Analytics firm RetailNext, which tracks specialty stores and large
footprint retailers, said sales dropped 8.9 percent over the weekend
versus a year ago, and store traffic dipped 10.2 percent. However,
customers who did hit the stores spent more. Specialty stores in the
United States include chains like Best Buy Co Inc <BBY.N> and large
footprint retailers include Wal-Mart Stores Inc <WMT.N> and Target.
"Even with this drop in growth, Super Saturday was still better
compared to Black Friday," said Shelley Kohan, vice president of
retail consulting at RetailNext. "It generated a tad more in terms
of sales on slightly less traffic."
Promotions earlier in November took a toll on in-store sales during
the Thanksgiving weekend, when total spending fell by 11 percent
from a year earlier.
Highly discounted categories like consumer electronics and home
improvement, which have had a strong season this year, continued to
do well on Super Saturday.
The apparel segment, which has had one of its worst years, also
picked up momentum, although not enough to offset slower growth in
the past two months.
Experts including Craig Johnson said the growth in apparel is
occurring on the back of heavily discounted pricing, so margins this
year will be weak in most of the category.
FTI Consulting's Jelinek pointed to a jump in online shopping this
past weekend which, he said, will bring relief to retailers with
physical stores who also have an online presence.
"The majority of retailers will be flat to negative in their bricks
and mortar business but their online sales will show significant
double-digit increases. This should boost the overall sales number."
(Additional reporting by Samantha Sunne in New York; editing by
Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis)
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