DEPOSIT PHOTOS
Just over half of all shoppers are nervous about shopping for holiday gifts in stores due to COVID-19, and 1 in 3 say their financial situation is worse year over year, according to Deloitte’s 2020 Holiday Survey: Reimagining Traditions. While these findings don’t mean that consumers are shirking Black Friday and Small Business Saturday entirely this year, 2020 holiday retailing certainly will look different.
“You’re not going to see a lot of emphasis on a single day,” said John Holub, president of the New Jersey Retail Merchants Association, evoking mental images of long early morning department store lines and mall escalators packed to the brim. “You’ll see it over a week or two, if not more. And it makes sense – we’re encouraging everyone to shop safe and shop earlier. That’s the mantra most retailers are trying to get out there.”
The National Retail Federation launched a Shop Safe, Shop Early campaign this year encouraging consumers to get their holiday shopping done before the 11th hour.
“I just saw one survey that said 40% of folks are going to start their holiday shopping by the end of this month. I’m sure you’re going to see the procrastinators, those who are there on Christmas Eve, but obviously we want to avoid massive crowds in individual stores. Hopefully, by spreading out the promotion, and having online as an option, we will,” Holub said.
In an interview with ABC affiliate KVUE in Austin, NRF Senior Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs Bill Thorne said that retailers are pushing their sales out early to avoid crowds later in the season.
“The inventory is there, the discounts are there, and people should feel safe to go into these stores because they’ve been doing everything they can to make the stores as safe as possible for the associates and their customers alike. So rather than stress about last minute shopping or ‘am I going to get the best deal right now,’ [shoppers should know] they’re giving them online and in-store at prices normally you would see Black Friday, Cyber Monday and into Super Saturday,” Thorne said.
According to Deloitte Retail & Distribution Leader Jonathan Rothman, getting consumers to shop early won’t be a challenge, because that’s what they want to do this year anyway.
“It goes back to their safety concerns. They’re going to go to a store less often and spending more online, and they want to make sure their consumer experience is safe. Contactless and curbside shopping is important to them, too,” Rothman said. “They want to avoid crowds, but if they’re spending longer, the more they spend.”
At retail gallery Peters Valley School of Craft in Layton, Gallery and Craft Fair Director Brienne Rosner said holiday sales plans this year will be “an overall holiday season that’s really focused on local artists.” The gallery has offered programming online throughout the pandemic, but shipping retail items is more challenging than previous years with reduced revenue.
Rosner said Black Friday tends to be a pretty busy day for the gallery, though, because it’s right in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a prime spot for leaf peeping and getting away from the usual shopper crowd.
In Hamilton, owner Constance Dalton said the exposure Carella’s Chocolates & Gifts got online was the only good thing to come out of the pandemic for her and her business. “People realized we were there, and that was the only good thing with COVID, if there is a good thing,” Dalton said.
Carella’s new website launches this week, funded by a small business website grant received during the pandemic. The chocolatier also recently launched a partnership with 1-800-Flowers, spurred by an inquiry from 1-800-Flowers itself. Dalton is fulfilling 15 or so fruit bouquet orders daily for the e-commerce retailer; and more through shop orders in her own newly launched fruit bouquet program..
Beyond Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, Downtown Haddonfield retailers participate in a small business weekend that extends into Sunday.
“It’s been a blockbuster of an event. That’s why we started doing it for a whole weekend, to keep the energy going, and this year of course is more important than others,” said Chef Kathy Gold, owner at In the Kitchen Cooking School.
Downtown businesses use the weekend as a chance to collaborate across town, and while Gold has one planned, she wasn’t ready to describe it. As far as deals go, though, she’ll be selling new American-made wooden cooking tools at 15% to 20% of their usual price.
Over in Collingswood, Arts Plus—a retail gallery and custom framer, and the town’s second oldest store—has shifted a fair amount of its business online by bulking up her website, but now allows 10 people in store and has extended holiday hours. Owner Rita Marino hasn’t thought as far ahead as Black Friday deals, since she and other retailers “kind of got burnt in a way” when they placed their orders for the first quarter and then had to close up shop for three months.
Though optimistic about attracting customers, she said, “I get this thing in the pit of my stomach every time I go to spend money. It’s like, what’s going to happen? We’re still ordering, we’re still getting merchandise in. [When we were closed] I still came in every day to water my flowers and sweep my front and fill some online orders.”
She did note that pre-COVID, she’d been hesitant to put her stock online due to the sheer variety of it all—a collection of one-off art pieces or practical wares like wooden bowls or utensils; unique Vermont-made puzzles; soaps, candles, socks, and the like, all of which she has just a few examples.
Now she has 90% of her inventory online, adding to it bit by bit and appropriately so: according to the Deloitte survey, 65% of consumers prefer shopping online in the wake of COVID-19.
The size of a Main Street retailer could attract a customer away from a big box store, particularly if the retailer understands the consumer’s safety preferences, Rothman said. Think about it: If you’re buying stationary at a small local card shop, wouldn’t that likely lead to less exposure than buying it at a Target, where people come for all sorts of items?
Main Street retailers could have a leg up on mall stores, too, with 48% preferring to shop at a store located outside of a mall, and 69% preferring to shop at a store close to home.
