Shorter holiday season means longer deals for shoppers

Thanksgiving is still several days away but retailers are wasting no time serving up discounts ahead of the five-day shopping extravaganza that starts Thanksgiving Day until Cyber Monday.

Target, Kohl’s, Anthropologie and other retailers started touting their doorbuster items early this month with some like Walmart announcing promotions are rolling out “earlier than ever” with online access to pre-Black Friday prices starting Friday.

Walmart spokesperson Tiffany Wilson said early access was largely done to accommodate a shorter shopping season.

“We really wanted to make sure they had enough time to shop,” Wilson said. “We’ve got a lot of customers who can’t wait to start saving so we’re trying to do some early events online and some events in store.”

This year marks the shortest holiday season compared to last year with six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A slew of earnings calls the past week from retailers such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target and URBN — whose portfolio includes Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie — all noted concern over the compressed schedule and had similar plans to work around it: early deals.

But a Thursday study by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics say it’s consumers who are driving the early shopping season.

“Thanksgiving is still a hallmark of the season, and there’s billions of dollars in shopping still to come. But many consumers have already been shopping for weeks, and retailers are increasingly adapting to that,” NRF President and Chief Executive Matthew Shay said in a statement.

It found more than 56 percent of the nearly 8,000 consumers surveyed during the first week of November had started their holiday shopping, about the same percentage as the past few years. The organization also found shoppers had completed about 24 percent of their holiday purchases, making it the highest reported level since the survey began in 2009.

Candace Vandervaart, store manager at Walmart’s Blue Diamond Road location, said she’s been seeing more customers and who are more ready to shop for Christmas decorations.

“Some years, we get (customers) saying let’s get Thanksgiving over before Christmas and we’re not seeing that,” Vandervaart said. “They’re excited about Christmas and the ability to shop in store and online and most stores in Las Vegas have the ability to pick up online (merchandise) in store.”

Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said consumers are no longer waiting until Thanksgiving or Black Friday to shop.

“Retailers responded this year by offering promotions earlier than ever with some rolling out holiday deals even before Halloween,” Rist said in the survey.

Stocking the shelves

North Summerlin Kohl’s Store Manager Bryan Stanley said his location started stocking its shelves in September.

“This year we really started early,” Stanley said. “We usually wait until about October…but this year we really started kicking up receipts, meaning we started getting a lot more product in. We’ve already seen a sales uptick coming into the holiday season.”

Stanley said the shortened holiday season is likely why Kohl’s ramped up inventory early across its locations, and why he’s seeing shoppers already spend for the gift-giving season.

Kohl’s said it introduced “more deals leading up to Black Friday than ever” with deals that started Nov. 1, and include limited-time, online-only flash deals starting next week. It even put Santa Claus to work early, scheduling in-store appearances as early as Nov. 3.

Boho-chic women’s apparel and home goods retailer Anthropologie also started this year’s holiday season earlier, according to Global President Hillary Super during Tuesday’s third quarter earnings call, for the three-month period ended October 31.

“Initial reads are very promising, particularly in apparel and gift, which become a higher percentage of our business in fourth quarter,” Super said. “With that being said, quarter four is typically the most unpredictable time of the year, and with the shortened selling season this year, there is some inherent uncertainty.”

Retail chain Target wasted no time—sending out emails this week about its early Black Friday on select TVs as well as encouraging shoppers to sign up for its RedCard or, recently launched, free Target Circle rewards program to gain access to select deals the day before Thanksgiving.

“While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still ahead of us, we’ve already been delivering compelling promotions, including the launch of HoliDeals, which will feature throughout the season, and our Black Friday two-day preview sale which was kicked off earlier this month.” Target Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Cornell said, during its Wednesday earnings call.

Meanwhile, Walmart started its online “Buy Now” Black Friday deals this week and pre-Black Friday deals Friday. It said its main deals will start online the day before Thanksgiving and in-stores Thanksgiving Day.

Early deals are great for shoppers looking for a stress-free shopping experience but it can also be hard to keep track off as retailers mix up the start dates of their online and in-store promotions.

Wilson said it’s a question the retail giant has considered.

“Our Black Friday plan is all about offering customers more ways to save,” she said. “We get asked sometimes if we’re worried about customers being confused, but we’re just trying to give them as many options as we can.”

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.