Profits hinge on holiday shopping. Will people be buying?
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The holiday months, starting with Halloween and ending with New Year’s, can make or break a business. In years past, the preparation started in the summer months with the bulk of stocking up on goods occurring in September.
But retailers, leery of years of constrained supply chains that have caused massive delays, are stocking up early and hoping the crowds will come out in person. A KPMG report estimates that holiday shopping will increase 6% this year over 2021, but that will largely go to essentials rather than extravagant gifts.
Indeed, retail sales remained the same in September compared to last August as consumers cut back on dining out and spending on goods. Inflation is consumers’ top concern, according to the KPMG report.?
The economy is pushing many to seek out gifts and other goods from big-box retailers and discount stores, but smaller companies can still lure in shoppers by capitalizing on big events like Black Friday, during which 60% of the consumers surveyed expect to shop.
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Owner
2 年I am not sure how business in general will be for the holidays this year. What I can say from my 45 years in business, starting in 79 is that people will find a way to buy gifts god their families. Mine is a luxury business in NYC and over the many years we have built up a loyal customer base or affluent families that always seem to have enough disposable income for a purchase. These people tend to be more established, like myself and have been thru life’s major expenses, eg college bills mortgage payments etc. I gave bee. Thru every upheaval since the 70 s had some tough years , some excellent years. It’s been interesting to say the lest. Where I see the differences is with the younger segment of people putting off purchasing because of uncertainty and rising bills.
Midwest Sedan and SUV service.
2 å¹´Thats a good question, depending upon what city your depends on whether you Amazon all your gift shopping or another type of online shopping site or you go to the mall. With some cities seeing an uptick in crime people are reluctant to shop downtown so to speak and most likely will shop online to avoid possible confrontation with the so called criminal activity. Let's face it, the criminal element sees opportunities to do what they do and the holidays mean cars full of gifts and people with money to spend mostly with there credit cards and the criminals are aware of this especially now since they're robbing mail carriers at least once or twice a week at least in Chicago. So being a shopper who hates the insanity at the store and the behavior of the people willing to run you over literally just to get a bargain on a flat screen TV, I will be shopping online from my house at 2 am going point , click,ship and back to bed. Some people will go to the mall so to speak because it's a tradition. It was mine years ago and now I don't miss the craziness of going there. There's enough craziness when having family over and making sure there's enough sweet potatoes to go around and enough egg nog and everything else to eat and drink.
Owner
2 å¹´YES! NOT DOING AS MUCH!
Executive Creative Director at Frames Of Mine
2 å¹´I'm not confident about the "spending" this holiday season People are so cautious. The rising prices are hard for a stand alone brick and mortar. Amazon I'm confident will do well. No matter what We, being in the custom frame business. Always have fun getting projects done for the holidays. This year. With the way we're going. It's too late to do an order for then. Timing has gotten harder. Companies have less workers, spotty COVID. No drivers for deliveries. Who knows But. We sell a lot of beautiful photo frames. And we do a very fair amount of that. We offer beautiful gift wrapping for each one That helps
Most of my gift shopping is already finished for the rest of this calendar year, and has been that way for about a month or so. The remaining two months will be me looking at "Black Friday" sales for things to cheaply buy as replacements for things I already own which have worn out or for consumables/food as they go on sale. Remember: the best present is presence.