Following months of sales and promotions, many retailers are concerned about the upcoming holiday period. Several stores could be left with excess inventory if they cannot attract customers in November and December. Many consumers have been tracking sales and purchasing gifts early in a response to rising consumer costs, inflation, and general financial pressures.
Retailers have already had to battle with supply chain disruption and choosing the ‘right’ post-pandemic products for consumers – an unknown for many brands. We have seen greater sales and additional promotions in recent months in a bid to get customers to go back to the shops, but this will likely have a knock-on effect on holiday shopping.
Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights at Adobe, explained “The shape of the holiday season will look different this year, with early discounting in October pulling up spend that would have occurred around Cyber Week.”
In addition to economic concerns, many consumers are becoming more reluctant to buy during big sales periods – such as Black Friday – as they move away from traditional consumerist behaviours and turn their backs on fast fashion trends. In fact, online Black Friday sales are expected to rise by just 1% this year, from 2021. Although Cyber Monday is expected to achieve revenue growth of 5.1%. Meanwhile, online spending during the holiday period is expected to increase by 2.5% – the lowest rise since Adobe began forecasting holiday retail trends in 2015.
