In era of online retail, Black Friday still lures a crowd

NEW YORK — It would have been easy to turn on their computers at home over plates of leftover turkey and take advantage of the Black Friday deals most retailers now offer online.

But across the country, thousands of shoppers flocked to stores on Thanksgiving or woke up before dawn the next day to take part in this most famous ritual of American consumerism.

Shoppers spent their holiday lined up outside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, by 4 p.m. Thursday, and the crowd had swelled to 3,000 people by the time doors opened at 5 a.m. Friday morning. In Ohio, a group of women was so determined, they booked a hotel room Thursday night to be closer to the stores. In New York City, one woman went straight from a dance club to a department store in the middle of the night.

Many shoppers said Black Friday is as much about the spectacle as it is about doorbuster deals.

Kati Anderson said she stopped at Cumberland Mall in Atlanta Friday morning for discounted clothes as well as "the people watching." Her friend, Katie Nasworthy, said she went to the mall instead of shopping online because she likes to see the Christmas decorations.

"It doesn't really feel like Christmas until now," said Kim Bryant, shopping in suburban Denver with her daughter and her daughter's friend, who had lined up at 5:40 a.m., then sprinted inside when the doors opened at 6 a.m.

Brick-and-mortar stores have worked hard to prove they can counter the competition from online behemoth Amazon. From Macy's to Target and Walmart, retailers are blending their online and store shopping experience with new tools like digital maps on smart phones and more options for shoppers to buy online and pick up at stores. And customers, frustrated with long checkout lines, can check out at Walmart and other stores with a salesperson in store aisles.

Consumers nearly doubled their online orders that they picked up at stores from Wednesday to Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending.

Priscilla Page, 28, punched her order number into a kiosk near the entrance of a Walmart in Louisville, Kentucky. She found a good deal online for a gift for her boyfriend, then arrived at the store to retrieve it.

"I've never Black Friday-shopped before," she said, as employees delivered her bag minutes later. "I'm not the most patient person ever. Crowds, lines, waiting, it's not really my thing. This was a lot easier."

The holiday shopping season presents a big test for a U.S. economy, whose overall growth so far this year has relied on a burst of consumer spending. Americans upped their spending during the first half of 2018 at the strongest pace in four years, yet retail sales gains have tapered off recently. The sales totals over the next month will be a good indicator as to whether consumers simply paused to catch their breath or feel less optimistic about the economy in 2019.

The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, is expecting holiday retail sales to increase as much as 4.8 percent over 2017 for a total of $720.89 billion. The sales growth marks a slowdown from last year's 5.3 percent, but remains healthy.

The retail economy is also tilting steeply toward online shopping. Over the past 12 months, purchases at non-store retailers such as Amazon have jumped 12.1 percent as sales at traditional department stores have slumped 0.3 percent. Adobe Analytics reported Thursday that Thanksgiving reached a record $3.7 billion in online retail sales, up 28 percent from the same year ago period. For Black Friday, online spending was on track to hit more than $6.4 billion, according to Adobe.

Target reported that shoppers bought big ticket items like TVs, iPads, and Apple Watches. Among the most popular toy deals were Lego, L.O.L. Surprise from MGA Entertainment and Mattel's Barbie. It said gamers picked up video game consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

Others reported stumbling onto more obscure savings. At a Cincinnati mall, Bethany Carrington scored a $29 all-in-one trimmer for her husband's nose hair needs and, for $17, "the biggest Mr. Potato Head I've ever seen."

Black Friday itself has morphed from a single day when people got up early to score doorbusters into a whole month of deals. Plenty of major stores including Macy's, Walmart and Target started their deals on Thanksgiving evening. But some families are sticking by their Black Friday traditions.

"We boycotted Thursday shopping; that's the day for family. But the experience on Friday is just for fun," said Michelle Wise, shopping at Park Meadows Mall in Denver with her daughters, 16-year-old Ashleigh and 14-year-old Avery.

By mid-day Friday, there had not been widespread reports of the deal-inspired chaos that has become central to Black Friday lore — fist fights over discounted televisions or stampedes toward coveted sale items.

Two men at an Alabama mall got into a fight, and one of the men opened fire, shooting the other man and a 12-year-old bystander, both of whom were taken to the hospital with injuries. Police shot and killed the gunman. Authorities have not said whether the incident was related to Black Friday shopping or if it stemmed from an unrelated dispute.

Candice Clark arrived at the Walmart in Louisville with her 19-year-old daughter Desiree Douthitt, looked around and remarked at how calm it all seemed. They have long been devotees of Black Friday deals and for years braved the crowds and chaos. Clark's son, about 10 years ago, got hit in the head with a griddle as shoppers wrestled over it. They saw one woman flash a Taser and threaten to use it on anyone who came between her and her desired fondue pot.

They've watched over the years as the traditional madness of the day has dissipated as shopping transitioned to online and stores stretched their sales from a one-day sprint to a days-long marathon.

"It seems pretty normal in here," said Roy Heller, as he arrived at the Louisville Walmart, a little leery of Black Friday shopping, but pleasantly surprised to find that he didn't even have to stand in line.

He had tried to buy his son a toy robot on Amazon, but it was sold out. Friday morning, he frantically searched the internet and found one single robot left, at a Walmart 25 miles from his home. He bought it online and arrived an hour later to pick it up.

Employees delivered his bag, he held it up and declared: "I got the last one in Louisville!"

____

Galofaro is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Ryan Tarinelli in Dallas, Katie Foody in Denver, Angie Wang in Cincinnati, Amy Taxin from Costa Mesa, California also contributed to this report.

source: philstar.com

From robbers to vendors, Swedes brace for cashless future

STOCKHOLM — Peter, 55 years old and homeless, is standing at a Stockholm supermarket, carrying the two objects that help him make a living: a stack of magazines and a debit card reader.

The magazine, Situation Stockholm, is sold by the poor to bring in some income, but for Peter and many other vendors the problem in recent years has been that cash is falling out of use, and passers-by often don’t have 50 kronor (5.70 euros, $7.80) at the ready to buy a copy.

The card reader, provided by the magazine’s publishers, has come to the rescue, and Peter, who asked not to be identified by his last name, couldn’t be happier.

“Customers can follow every step so that they don’t feel cheated,” he said, showing the functions of the device. “I’m impressed by this thing. It’s cool.”

Mattias Stroemberg, a potential customer taking a look at Peter’s magazines, welcomed the opportunity to pay with cards: “I never carry cash around. No one does anymore.”

In Sweden, only 27 percent of retail sales are made with cash, according to a recent paper by the European Central Bank. If online sales were included, the figure would be even smaller.

All the Nordic countries are rapidly on the way towards a cashless society, deepening an existing divide between north and south in Europe. In Greece and Romania, for example, 95 percent of transactions are still in cash.

Not everyone in Sweden cheers the transition. In a celebrated case, a would-be robber entered a Stockholm bank, but had to leave empty-handed, discovering that he had picked a cashless bank.

Criminals are not the only ones affected. From Copenhagen to Reykjavik, the cashless society has profoundly changed the ways people live.

Everything from hot dogs to taxes is paid for online, with bank cards, or by SMS. Many buses refuse cash — confounding foreign tourists — and the newly opened ABBA Museum in the Swedish capital also only accepts credit and debit cards.

“Neither retailers nor banks have any obligation to accept cash,” according to the nation’s central bank, the Riksbank.

‘A society where cash is reduced to a minimum’

“We’ll probably not see a totally cashless society in the near future, but a society where cash is reduced to a minimum and used in very few situations, is probably quite realistic,” said Niklas Arvidsson, a researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who published a study on the topic earlier this year.

The big winners are the banks and card companies, but in the end, all of society could benefit as cash is more expensive to handle than electronic payments, he said.

But the elderly and rural citizens, as well as the socially marginalised with high credit risk such as the long-term unemployed, would have problems if cash disappeared completely, he argued.

“If our society goes in this direction, that you basically can’t do anything at all without access to debit or credit cards … it might even create further marginalisation and exclusion,” said Leif Oeberg, development director at the Swedish Salvation Army, which offers support to people in need.

“The absolute and almost immediate effect … is that you can’t travel by bus. What we see at the other end of the spectrum is that the most marginalised get around on foot … or travel (by metro) without a ticket, but you can’t do that on the bus. That is the stark reality for people today,” he added.

There exists an alternative — pre-paid debit cards that people can later recharge at convenience stores, but with a minimum of 200 kronor (22 euros, $30) even this can pose difficulties.

Arvidsson also warned that consumers’ rights might be at risk as the electronic trail every card user leaves behind could be misused for marketing purposes.

“There is a concern that today’s laws are insufficient,” said Arvidsson. “The authorities must ensure that the information is used correctly.”

Other losers in the cashless game are smaller shops struggling with high card fees, especially after Sweden implemented a new law in 2010 that banned imposing surcharges on customers for paying with cards.

That means the retailers themselves must deal with the fees to the card-issuing companies — up to 2.50 kronor per transaction, plus an additional percentage fee.

Since 70 percent of all retail transactions in Sweden are by card, both debit and credit, it adds up to a sizable sum.

Retailers include the fee in the prices of their products, but for smaller shops it’s a problem because they don’t have the economies of scale and thus have a hard time keeping prices low.

For reasons such as these, Swedish money is not about to go completely virtual.

The Riksbank, which having been founded in 1668 is one of the world’s oldest central banks, still plans to launch new banknotes and coins in 2015.

“We believe cash will continue to exist in the near future. We can’t foresee it disappearing completely,” said Christina Wejshammar, head of the banknotes and coins division at the Riksbank. “It all depends on how we act as consumers.”

source: interaksyon.com

Retailers smarten up with smartphone shoppers

WASHINGTON — As consumers seek to outsmart their local retailers with their smartphones, the stores are fighting back on the same front.

Retailers are increasingly gathering data from smartphone users in stores, tracking their locations and habits in an effort to boost sales and efficiencies.

While consumers often use their smartphones to compare prices, a practice known as “showrooming,” the retailers may be outsmarting them by collecting data on customer movements and activities from the electronic devices.

Brick-and-mortar retailers can be hurt by showrooming, but can also use smartphones to their advantage to reduce wait times for checkouts, stock the right merchandise and reward loyal customers.

The practice of tracking is drawing scrutiny from privacy activists even as the market for this technology shows sizzling growth.

“I can’t even count the number of startups in this field,” says Leslie Hand, retail analyst for International Data Corp.

Hand said it is difficult to estimate the value of this market because it is so new, but that retailers are anxious to use smartphone data “so they have as much information about the customers in the store as they do about the customers shopping online.”

By tracking users’ smartphones and their unique identifiers, retailers can tell how often a customer visits, how much time they spend in a location and other data. The “indoor location,” data which is similar to GPS, can use several kinds of technology including Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

With this, retailers “can better understand customer buying behavior to market better, and possibly make an offer to them,” Hand told AFP.

The data collected is generally anonymous, aggregate information about flows of customers and patterns. But at a time when Americans are wary of government surveillance, this has raised the hackles of a number of consumer privacy groups and lawmakers.

John Soma, executive director of the University of Denver Privacy Foundation, said consumers should be giving “effective consent” to collect data and that may not be the case “when they put up a tiny sign” at a store entrance.

Soma said it is not clear what retailers and data firms are doing with the data: using it internally may be appropriate for store management, he said, but in some cases “that data floats out” to data brokers or other parties.

In a bid to head off complaints, a handful of data analytics companies announced a code of conduct in collaboration with the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank.

The code calls for posted signs that alert shoppers that tracking technology is being used, and instructions for how to opt out.

Jules Polonetsky, executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum, told AFP this is “a good code in a time when people are sensitive about privacy.”

He said it allows the smartphone users to remain anonymous and opt out of tracking, and to opt in to provide personal data which could allow the retailer to offer a discount or other promotion.

Senator Charles Schumer, who had criticized tracking as intrusive, called the code “a significant step forward in the quest for consumer privacy.”

Yet it remains unclear the degree to which retailers and the full range of data collection companies will adhere to the code.

National Retail Federation general counsel Mallory Duncan said the code “has been put together and signed on by some small technology companies.”

“I’ve not seen a great deal of comment from our retail members at this point. It’s still under review,” he told AFP.

But Duncan said the techniques are not new: retailers have traditionally used older methods to accomplish the same goals such as surveillance cameras or “hiring young people to stand at the end of an aisle with a clicker.”

Paul Stephens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse said the code of conduct is “vague” and that many consumers won’t understand it. Another issue may be that minors, including young children with smartphones, might be tracked without consent.

“There is a creepiness factor about it,” Stephens said. “One does not anticipate when they are in a public place that their location is subject to tracking and monitoring.”

Greg Sterling of the San Francisco consultancy Opus Research said that some privacy issues need to be addressed, but that consumers ultimately benefit from the technology.

“One of the major reasons people walk out of stores is they can’t find the product they are looking for, and a chief complaint is poor customer service,” Sterling said.

“So if you can use customer location to give them more information or give them help, it’s positive.”

Sterling said privacy concerns and consent must be addressed, but cautioned against holding back this new technology.

“Retailers are going to use this data because it’s so powerful,” he told AFP. “We should not shun the technology. We should have rules that protect people’s interest.”

source: interaksyon.com

Online sellers tailor prices to geography

U.S. online retailers use their computing power to tailor prices to where their customers are located, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper said it found Staples.com charged $15.79 for a stapler that another customer just few miles away got for $14.29. The Journal said it found Staples appeared to factor in a customer's distance from a rival brick-and-mortar store, such as OfficeMax or Office Depot, when quoting a price.

"How can they get away with that?" asked Trude Frizzell, the Bergheim, Texas, customer who got the lower price.

"I think it's very discriminatory," said Kim Wamble, the customer in nearby Boerne, Texas, who was made to pay the higher amount.

The Journal said its investigation found areas that tended to have discounted prices had a higher average income than places that tended to get higher prices.

Staples told the newspaper its online and in-store prices vary by geography based on "a variety of factors," including "costs of doing business."

The Journal said companies such as Discover Financial Services, Rosetta Stone Inc. and Home Depot gather information about visitors to their websites and use it to develop different pitches to different people -- with prices, products and advertising shaped for specific geographic areas.

Companies that do it say online price differences are no different than those for bricks-and-mortar stores.

source: upi.com

Gaudy Christmas sweaters make a comeback

Retailers including boutique chain Kitson, based in Los Angeles, said ugly Christmas sweaters have made a comeback as ironic duds for younger generations.

Fraser Ross, owner of Kitson, said ugly Christmas sweater parties are filling the holiday void once occupied by tree trimming parties, as people in their 20s and 30s embrace the garishly decorated garments as humorous ways to celebrate the season, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

"It's the new theme for hostesses who are trying to bring the mostest to holiday parties," he said. "It's like having a Halloween party during Christmas."

Evan Mendelsohn, co-founder of San Diego clothing brand Tipsy Elves, said ugly Christmas sweaters -- including playful depictions of conga-dancing reindeer, and Santa spelling "Merry Christmas" in the snow with his urine -- are proving to be holiday bestsellers.

"The majority of people buying are in their 20s or 30s who are sort of making light of what can be a serious holiday. It gives them an excuse to wear something funny," Mendelsohn said. "It's not going to die like a normal fashion trend."

Carin Agiman, owner of Berkeley, Calif., clothing label GeltFiend, said he launched a line of Hanukkah equivalents for the ugly Christmas sweaters to let Jewish revelers get in on the fun.

His brand includes a sweater picturing Hasidic snowmen and a dreidel cardigan.

"I have a lot of non-Jewish friends, so I get invited to a lot of ugly Christmas sweater parties," Agiman said. "There's been a lot of pent-up Jewish angst over not having some equivalent ugliness."

source: upi.com

US shoppers welcome early start to 'Black Friday'

NEW YORK/BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota - Retailers declared their experiment with earlier store openings to kick off the holiday shopping season a success on Friday, with those new hours expected to be a Thanksgiving night staple for more retailers next year.

Stores such as Target Corp opened hours before midnight on Thursday to try to capture a bigger piece of the retail pie. The move seemed to bring out a different type of shopper than the usual one who grabs the "Black Friday" deals, analysts said.

That meant by Friday morning, some shoppers, like Christian Alcantara, 18, at a J.C. Penney Co Inc store in Queens, New York, had already made a lot of their purchases. J.C. Penney stuck to a more traditional 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Friday opening.

"They should open earlier. I've been everywhere else and I've already shopped," he said.

Shoppers like Alcantara are likely to force holdouts like J.C. Penney to move their post-Thanksgiving sales into Thursday night next year, said Liz Ebert, retail lead at consulting firm KPMG LLP.

"There will be pressure on them. There'll be an expansion of it next year," Ebert said.

Hard data on "Black Friday" store traffic will not come in until this weekend. But analysts said retailers who opened early brought in a non-traditional Black Friday shopper, with more families coming in together and buying more than just the "doorbuster" sale items.

"I've never seen parents bring so many kids on Black Friday," Toys R Us Chief Executive Jerry Storch said.

The National Retail Federation expects sales during November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year, below last year's 5.6 percent increase. That made store operators' strategy important as they battled each other, rather than seeing a growing pie in a season when U.S. retailers can make a third of their annual sales and 40 to 50 percent of their profits.

"Retailers want them to buy now, they want to get that share of wallet early," said Michael Appel, a director at consulting firm AlixPartners. He noticed that the Galleria Mall in White Plains, New York, was busy from midnight to 3 a.m., but that traffic, while still brisk, was less heavy by midmorning.

Shoppers used smartphones and tablets and a lot of research as they hit stores, a mobile phenomenon that started last year and seemed to be more prevalent this year.

Thom Blischok, chief retail strategist and a senior executive adviser with Booz & Company's Retail practice, was waiting on line with one woman in Phoenix, who was shopping for a refrigerator. Using her mobile device, she found the appliance online for the same price and left the store without. She intended to buy it online instead.

"There's a fundamental transformation of shopping," he said.

Mobile devices account for 45 percent walmart.com traffic and online traffic coming from Walmart's mobile app was three times bigger than last year, Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com, said.

Overall, online sales were up 20 percent versus the same period last year, through 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Friday, IBM said.

The National Retail Federation said 147 million people would shop Friday through Sunday, when deals are at their most eye-catching - down from 152 million the same weekend last year.

The NRF estimate did not account for Thursday shoppers and anecdotal evidence suggested retailers opening earlier may have cut into traffic on "Black Friday", the traditional start of the holiday season that denotes the point when retailers in the past would turn a profit for the year.

"People seemed to be shopping quite a bit, although in talking to mall management, it seemed that traffic was not as busy as last year," Deloitte retail analyst Ramesh Swamy said.

Retailers were also using technology better, allowing sales staff to match prices customers found online and having them use tablets as mobile "checkout stands" so buyers did not have to wait in line, a service consumers were quickly coming to expect.

"I even heard customers complaining about a retailer that didn't have mobile checkout," he said.

Saving up for Christmas spree

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, two-thirds of shoppers were planning to spend the same amount of money as last year or were unsure about plans, while 21 percent intended to spend less, and 11 percent planned to spend more.

"I definitely have more money this year," said Amy Balser, 26, at the head of the line outside the Best Buy store in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. "I definitely don't think (the economy) has bounced back anywhere near as much as it needs to, but I see some improvement," she said.

For others, Christmas is the focal point of their annual shopping.

"We cut back spending on birthdays and anniversaries so we'd have more for Christmas. We've adapted," said Cheri Albus, 58, of Papillion, Nebraska, after shopping at J.C. Penney at Westroads Mall in Omaha.

Retail stocks rose in holiday-shortened trading on Friday, in line with gains across the market. Among the leaders, Wal-Mart ended up 1.9 percent and Macy's Inc rose 1.8 percent.

Starting early

Across the country, store lines were long - in the hundreds or more in many places - with the move toward earlier opening hours appearing to help. By sunrise on Friday, it was commonplace, even at large stores in the major cities, to find many more staffers than shoppers.

While the shift to earlier openings was criticized by store employees and traditionalists because it pulled people away from families on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, many shoppers welcomed the chance to shop before midnight or in the early morning hours.

Some workers used the day to send a message.

OUR Walmart - a coalition of current and former Wal-Mart staff seeking better wages, benefits and working conditions - targeted Black Friday for action across the country after staging protests outside stores for months.

Nine protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges after blocking a street outside a Walmart near Los Angeles, police said. Three of those arrested were Walmart workers, OUR Walmart said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc's U.S. discount stores, which have been open on Thanksgiving since 1988, offered some Black Friday deals at 8 p.m. on Thursday and special deals on certain electronics, such as Apple Inc iPads, at 10 p.m.

At the Macy's store in Herald Square in Manhattan, the line at the Estee Lauder counter was four deep shortly after its midnight opening. The cosmetics department's "morning specials" included free high-definition headphones with any fragrance purchase of $75 or more, and a set of six eye shadows for $10.

But for some people, cheap wasn't cheap enough - like the Macy's shopper who bought Calvin Klein shoes at 50 percent off but was still not satisfied.

"I was hoping for deeper discounts," said Melissa Glascow, 35, of Brooklyn, New York.

That could actually be an intentional strategy to help retailers' profits.

"It appears that manufacturers and retailers are making concerted efforts to drive margins, which may take some of the sales sizzle out of a traditionally big selling day/period, but should be positive to gross margins," Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said in a note to clients.

Lines at Best Buy stores were similar to last year but the traffic to its website was "significantly" higher, Shawn Score, head of the company's U.S. retail business, told Reuters.

source: interaksyon.com

Why Retailers Can’t Wait Until Election Day

Retailers are known to play the blame game when it comes to their sales numbers. They will point the finger at Mother Nature for being too hot or rainy, Hollywood for releasing a blockbuster and distracting shoppers and even consumers themselves for being too bargain hungry, hurting their margins. But they might have a legitimate excuse during the campaign season.

According to ShopperTrak, shopping activity decreases during a campaign cycle. During the 2004 presidential election, retailers experienced a 0.7% year-over-year decline in sales and a 2.2% drop off the week before Election Day. In 2008, foot traffic dropped off 3.7% the week before the election and 6.3% the week of the election, when compared with the same period the year before.

“As we get closer to the day, retailers will struggle to find air time between all the political aids running and get consumers’ attention,” says Bill Martin, ShopperTrack’s founder. “Consumers get bombarded and consumed with the election coverage…just look at the first debate, it brought in 60 million viewers who weren’t out shopping.”

Shoppers tend to go “on hold” during the campaign, according to Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing. “People are on pins and needles, everybody has a hat in the game and that shifts their primary focus to necessity buying — they are still going to need milk and gas, but they tend to put on hold shopping trips and weekend getaways until they know who is going to be elected.”

Thankfully for retailers, Martin says the pent-up demand will make up for the lost revenue. “We see it released immediately after the election no matter which party wins. Be prepared for the weekend following the election to be a big shopping day -- that will be the start of the holiday season in earnest.”

While retailers might enjoy the boon, it might be short lived. According to Steve Pruitt, founder and senior consultant of Blacks Retail, there is a pattern of down sales the year after an election. “Every year since 1950, except for two in which the economy was experiencing a recovery, there was a downturn in retail sales. I expect the rate to slow for sure in 2013 and it could go negative based on the ineptitude of the government.”

Spending Power

American Express Publishing and Harrison Group released a study this week highlighting that holiday spending will tick up 33.5% to $3.4 billion among the top 1% of earners. On the flip side, the study showed the rest of consumers planning to spend 3.4% less this season.

“When you look at raw data, retail is up 5% year-over-year, and that’s a big number, but if you look at this same time last year, it was up 7.5% from 2010, so the real question is how strong is this recovery?” says Danziger.

She points out that the middle-class's drop in income puts more pressure on the economy and  on retailers to attract wealthy shoppers. 

“The middle class has seen its income drop 4% and that is a terrible sign for retailers and the economy. The affluent ones are the ones who have the money left and can turn on and off the spigot in terms of spending, and if they feel embattled or under attack from the White House they aren’t going to spend as much. They can afford to hold out.” 

Experts agree that the election process weighs more heavily on retailers than the results — it’s  the certainty of knowing who will occupy the Oval Office that will calm fears.

“Retailers looking into future investments want to have a clear direction and if they don’t see a clear picture then they won’t do anything, they hold back, which holds back growth,” says Pruitt. “Businesses aren’t going to take risks over growth if they don’t know what is going to happen.”

Bargain-seeking shoppers worried about the election over shadowing or reducing Black Friday advertisements don’t need to fear. Black Friday has become so engrained in our society that nothing will impact the deals and the two weeks after Election Day and the shopping event is plenty of time to spread the word.

“When you think about all the people sitting around the Thanksgiving table the conversation will eventually roll around to how early people are setting out and what they are trying to get. It’s know part of the holiday,” says Martin.

source: foxbusiness.com

ONLINE SHOPPING

EBAY Inc., once a scrappy auction site for mom and pop sellers, is enticing some of the world's largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better against e-commerce leader Amazon.com, Inc.

EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe and other executives have been telling retailers that Amazon is their enemy, while eBay is a friend because, unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory.

Amazon buys products wholesale, stores them in inventory, and sells them to consumers at higher prices – like all retailers.

EBay says it just matches buyers and sellers.

That message is sinking in, especially among brick and mortar retailers that are losing market share to Amazon.

''As retailers look for new vehicles for growth eBay becomes a natural partner – a better partner than Amazon,'' said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research.

When RadioShack Corp., reported a surprise quarterly loss last month, Chief Executive Jim Gooch told analysts that the electronics retailer had set up an eBay storefront to help the company reach new customers online.

Barnes & Noble, Toys ''R'' Us, GNC Holdings, Aeropostale, and Neiman Marcus are among other big retailers that now have storefronts on eBay.

Best Buy Co., Inc., sells mobile phones and wireless plans on eBay.

On Monday, eBay said it was testing a same-day delivery service called eBay Now with Target Corp., the second-largest US retailer, and other big retailers including Macy's, Inc., Nordstrom, Inc., and Walgreen Co.

Amazon offers same-day delivery in some areas already.

The foundations of eBay Now rest on Milo, a start-up eBay acquired in late 2010 which lets merchants upload in-store inventory onto eBay's online marketplace. When shoppers search on eBay now, they see what online sellers are offering, but also which nearby physical stores carry the product.

More than 50,000 stores in the United States have uploaded inventory to eBay, via Milo, including major retailers Home Depot, Inc., Ikea, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., and J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

''It's simple: location, location, location,'' said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. ''Sellers have to go to where the buyers are.''

EBay has more than 100 million active shoppers on its online marketplace, he noted.

''Retailers don't have those kinds of numbers coming to their sites and buying,'' Schachter said. ''They would love to only sell through their own site, but they have to go where the buyers are, and many are on eBay.''

Amazon has a lot more active customers – about 180 million – but some retailers steer clear still.

Barnes & Noble, which has been hammered by Amazon, has had an eBay storefront since late 2010 and mostly uses it to sell refurbished Nook gadgets. Toys and books were added in May 2011.

''EBay has been an exceptional partner, working with Barnes & Noble to effectively promote Nook to its massive user base,'' said Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating. ''Amazon is a competitor. We don't sell on Amazon and have no plans to do so.''

Toys ''R'' Us does not sell on Amazon either. More than a decade ago, the largest toy retailer had exclusive rights to supply some toys on Amazon's website. That partnership ended in litigation and Amazon is now a leading toy retailer in its own right.

''It's the worst-kept secret in the retail industry,'' said Mulpuru. ''When you partner with Amazon, they are looking at your data, learning your business and have ambition to get into every category.''

Among the 100 largest retailers in the United States, most are choosing eBay over Amazon, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell on both online marketplaces.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Amazon's marketplace for third-party sellers is growing rapidly and Wingo said that would not be happening if all retailers thought Amazon was the enemy.

The lure of Amazon's massive customer base is still powerful for many.

''We take any chance of getting new eyeballs and Amazon is just so large in the world of e-commerce,'' said Jerry Deboer, senior vice president of marketing at Jos. A. Bank, which has Amazon and eBay stores.

RadioShack also has both, and big retailers including Office Max and Sephora run Amazon stores.

Adding large sellers to eBay's marketplace helps the company in several ways.

EBay takes a cut of sales, so higher-volume sellers may help the company generate more revenue and profit.

EBay and retailers declined to discuss fees. However, eBay charges less for top sellers and negotiates individual deals with the biggest and best, according to Wingo.

EBay has struggled in the past because some of the products on its site were listed poorly or of questionable quality, and customer service from small sellers is not always what it could be. Big retailers are more likely to sell higher-quality products, categorize them more and provide better service.

DIFFERENT SHOPPERS

Retailers say eBay storefronts attract different shoppers than the ones who come to their own websites and physical stores.

EBay shoppers often search for deals, so some retailers use eBay to sell end-of-season or outlet products at lower prices.

Neiman Marcus' eBay storefront sells apparel, shoes and accessories under the Last Call brand, its outlet business.

EBay provides data to retailers to help them check if the shoppers who come to their eBay storefronts overlap with their existing customer base, according to Michael Jones, vice president of merchant development at eBay.

''By and large, people see this as a very significant incremental channel for them,'' Jones said.

In early 2010, eBay started including storefront inventory in results when shoppers searched on the website's front page.

That has helped retailers place their products in front of more consumers, according to Jo

source: mb.com.ph