Minnetonka, Minn. — Hanukkah is next Tuesday and Christmas is only 13 days away, but the holiday season is far from over for retailers and their customers.
According to e-commerce services firm Digital River, three of the top 10 busiest shopping days of 2014 still lie ahead, today (No. 10) being one of them.
Next Monday (Dec. 15) is forecast to be the fifth-largest shopping day of the year, behind Black Friday, which has slipped to fourth place. Early promotions and Thanksgiving day store openings have taken a toll on Black Friday, which has been displaced by Cyber Monday (No. 1) and Green Monday (No. 2), Digital River’s SEO and site optimization lead Chris Birkholm said.
But not every top 10 shopping day has or needs a name. Besides today and next Monday, this coming Tuesday (Dec. 16) is also expected to make the list, coming in as the seventh-best sales day for retailers.
Indeed, Mondays and Tuesdays in the three-week period after Black Friday appear to be consistent winners, Birkholm observed, while no weekends, very few Fridays, and nothing within a week of Christmas — ostensibly due to shipping cut-off dates — come close to making the list.
Merchants and customers will also benefit from an extra shopping day this year, which brings the number of days between Black Friday and Christmas to 27, the first time since 2008.
All told, Digital River pegs the holiday sales take at $10 billion.
Apparently, Walmart read the memo and has planned a series of mid-December sales events, including yesterday’s 24-hour free shipping on all orders offer, and new rounds of in-store “rollbacks” tomorrow (Dec. 13) and the return of Cyber Monday-like pricing on Monday.
Saturday’s CE deals will include a 65-inch Vizio smart LED TV for $898, a $100 savings, with a $100 Walmart gift card thrown in, while online offers on Monday will include a 40-inch Hitachi LED TV for $259, reduced from $400.
The discounter has also cut prices on 16GB iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus to $49, $129 and $229, respectively and reduced Samsung’s Galaxy S5 to $79, all with two-year contracts on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.
“Gift buying no longer happens on just one day or in just one way,” said Scott McCall, Walmart’s toys and seasonal merchandising senior VP. “There is a lot more shopping to do.”
