Electronics and appliance store holiday sales were down 2 percent year-over-year, NRF said Thursday, counter to overall trends. Holiday retail sales volume came in near the high end of the National Retail Federation’s October forecast (see 1910240037), growing 4.1 percent year over year to $730.2 billion, the trade group said Thursday. NRF predicted holiday retail spending between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion. Online and other non-store sales, included, were up 14.6 percent vs. the 2018 holiday period at $167.8 billion, above forecast. Retail sales in November and December “validate continued optimism for increased investment and opportunity in the retail industry,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay, a “positive indicator of what’s ahead.” The healthy holiday season contrasted with the decline in retail sales at the end of 2018, and despite the late Thanksgiving and tariff worries, “the consumer didn’t go away.” he said. Strong employment numbers, high wages and strong household balance sheets boosted consumer confidence, Shay said. December’s 0.5 percent year-over-year improvement compared with November’s 0.1 percent month-over-month decline. Two high-volume shopping days -- the Sunday following Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday -- fell in December.
Target shares fell 6.6 percent to $117 Wednesday after a November-December report showing comparable sales growth of 1.4 percent, well below a November forecast of 3-4 percent growth. Electronics sales were down 6 percent. Comp sales growth for the year-ago period was 5.7 percent. Comparable digital sales grew 19 percent over the two-month period, while Target's three same-day fulfillment services -- order pickup, drive up and Shipt -- grew over 50 percent year on year, driving three-quarters of digital sales growth, it said. Strength in apparel, food and beverage, and essentials and beauty, was offset by softer-than-expected performance in key holiday categories including electronics, toys and home, which combined to make up a third of Target’s holiday season sales. The company maintained Q4 earnings-per-share guidance of $1.55-$1.75 per share.
Forty-seven-year-old B&H Photo, a high-volume CE online retailer -- which started as a pre-internet mail order business focused on photography gear -- has re-invented itself again. The retailer’s lone retail store, in midtown Manhattan, is now a “superstore,” the company boasted in a Monday news release, touting 400,000 in-stock computers, mobile, video, home entertainment, audio, drones, smart home, gaming and other consumer tech. Mirroring services offered by big box retailers such as Target and Best Buy, B&H is pushing a buy online, pick up in store service Monday through Friday, for up to an hour after the store's closing time: 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 1 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Sunday. Customers can also pick up items purchased online an hour before the store opens at 9 a.m., it said. B&H, rebranded as B&H SuperStore, is also pushing its new in-store “tech corner.” Customers can make one-on-one appointments to learn about the gear they own, for free, it said. It also promoted its Payboo credit card: U.S. customers paying by Payboo are instantly credited back the equivalent of sales tax paid.
Holiday shoppers should be aware of return policies, paying attention to end dates that vary by retailer, said consumer shopping website DealNews. Apple has a cut-off date of Jan. 8 for items bought at Apple.com between Nov. 15 and Christmas. Purchases made after Christmas are subject to the standard 14-day return policy. Only items bought directly from Apple’s website or its stores can be returned to Apple. Those Apple devices bought from other retailers can be returned according to their returns and refunds policies, it says. Macy's has the same Jan. 8 cut-off date, which also applies to electronic accessories, says the website. Target extended it to Jan. 9. Also at Target, electronics and entertainment items must be returned within 30 days for a refund or exchange, but for items bought Nov. 1-Dec. 25, the 30-day refund period starts on Dec. 26, says the website; all mobile phones must be returned or exchanged within 14 days. All items bought with a carrier contract at a Target store must be returned or exchanged within 14 days and may be subject to early termination fees per carrier contract. Walmart extended the return window for items purchased Oct. 24-Dec. 25 to begin on Thursday with 14- or 30-day return windows depending on the product; items subject to the 90-day return window have no change. Most electronics have a 30-day return window at Walmart; its cellphone return policy is 14 days.
An estimated 147.8 million U.S. consumers are expected to participate in Super Saturday in-store and online, up from 134.3 million last year, said the National Retail Federation Wednesday. Despite early shopping, those who waited until Thanksgiving weekend "are feeling the pressure due to the limited number of days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay, saying the last Saturday before Christmas has become the biggest shopping day of the year. "We expect an impressive turnout by procrastinators and those who just want to take advantage of really good deals," said the executive.
Target upped the free shipping stakes Monday, guaranteeing free delivery by Christmas on orders for eligible items placed by 12 p.m. CST Friday. Last year, more than 60 percent of holiday shoppers were still making purchases in the later weeks of December, said the retailer, which also announced extended store hours: Most Target stores will open at 7 a.m. and close at midnight through Dec. 23, through 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, it said. Flexing its fulfillment muscle, Target is offering same-day order pickup for orders placed online or by app until two hours before stores close on Dec. 24, it said, with most orders ready within an hour. With Target’s GiftNow feature, shoppers can send an e-gift immediately or on a future date. The recipient can accept the gift or exchange it for a new size, color or item -- before the gift ships, it said. In the Monday news release, the retailer was still hawking TVs with steep savings, up to $300 off select models. An LG 70-inch 70UM6970PUA was selling for $599 Monday at Target and Best Buy for $599, $300 off the list price, we found.
Tariffs remain a “big uncertainty” for the retail channel heading into 2020 “with Lists 4A and 4B possibly being pulled back/delayed,” wrote Goldman Sachs' Kate McShane to investors Monday. She flagged the impact tariffs have already had on retailers’ comparative sales and gross margins “and what companies need to lap in 2020.” On the retail hard-lines outlook for next year, McShane expects healthier retailers to continue to benefit from an ongoing wave of spending, with growth continuing from low unemployment and higher wages; store closures should free up dollars to flow to healthier retailers, she said. “The macro environment seems supportive of discretionary stocks with the read on disposable personal income continuing to be constructive in 2020, albeit slowing to 4.1% from 4.7% in 2019,” said the analyst.
October retail sales at electronics and appliance stores declined 3 percent from a year earlier and fell 0.4 percent sequentially from September, reported the National Retail Federation Friday. Total retail sales were up 4.2 percent from October 2018 and increased 0.2 percent sequentially from September, said NRF. Online and other non-store sales were up 14.6 percent year over year and up 0.9 percent month-over-month, it said. “Despite the gradual slowdown in the U.S. economy, consumers are in a good place and October’s retail sales are a step forward into the all-important holiday season,” it said. “Uncertainty around trade policy has impacted consumer sentiment recently but ongoing job growth, low interest rates, low inflation and the stock market hitting record highs provide support for consumer spending.”
Sixty-four percent of U.S. consumers plan to shop at Amazon for holiday gifts, 62 percent at Walmart and 44 percent at Target, reported the National Retail Federation Monday. An NRF survey showed one in 10 plans to shop at Best Buy, but 22 percent of tech buyers will shop the electronics retailer, NRF said. Of other tech buyers, 30 percent plan to shop at Amazon, 19 percent at Walmart, 6 percent at Costco and 3 percent at GameStop, it said. Some 52 percent are “completely likely” to shop online, 28 percent very likely and 16 percent moderately likely, NRF said; 4 percent were not very or not at all likely to shop online. Of those moderately likely to shop online, 76 percent cited Amazon as their top destination vs. Walmart at 11 percent, Target at 4 percent and Best Buy at 1 percent. Toys (48 percent) are the top item consumers plan to buy in the holiday season; 43 percent plan to buy electronics. Consumers are responding to the choice they have for shopping: 26 percent plan to use buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS), 25 percent are very likely; 5 percent said they weren’t at all likely to use BOPIS. Some 61 percent of consumers plan to use a retailer app to shop this season; 15 percent were not very or not at all likely to app-shop. Electronics scored third (computer, tablet) and fourth (digital watch) on most-wished-for gifts under $250, and the Fitbit Versa 2 smartwatch led brand-specific wish lists; Apple Watch Series 3 and AirPods were listed third and fourth. Men’s brand-specific lists showed Nintendo Switch, AirPods, Fitbit Versa 2, Powerbeats Pro headphones and Apple Watch. Some 95 percent of Christmas shoppers expect to visit at least one physical store for gifts through Christmas. NRF increasingly is taking a hybrid view of retail: “It’s not physical or digital; it’s physical and digital,” it said.
Best Buy customers "want and deserve convenient, fast options to receive our great products, and they want it on their terms,” Chief Supply Chain Officer Rob Bass told last month's Best Buy Investor Update conference (see 1909250043). But speed and convenience weren't the watchwords of our experience Saturday when we tried to get Best Buy to sell us Lenovo’s newly released $1,799 Yoga C940 2-in-1 Ultra HD laptop with Dolby Atmos surround audio and Dolby Vision HDR video. We finally landed a Yoga C940 via in-store pickup at Best Buy’s Union Square location in Manhattan, but not before trekking 30 miles over six hours by car and subway visiting three metro New York Best Buy stores to buy the product, twice leaving the stores empty-handed. Best Buy’s Westbury, Long Island, and Rego Park, Queens, locations each listed two units of the Yoga C940 in stock online and in the stores' inventory system when we arrived, but Blue Shirts and store managers in both locations couldn’t find the merchandise after many minutes searching haphazardly through bins, shelves and nooks. All staffers were apologetic, but were themselves befuddled why they were unable to find our unit when Best Buy’s real-time inventory system still showed two in stock. A manager in Rego Park even attempted to no avail to search the system to see if he could learn where one of the units in inventory had last been spotted. A Rego Park Blue Shirt took our payment for an in-store pickup at Union Square, advising us to go there because the system showed four units in stock there, versus only two at the Chelsea, Manhattan, location. When we arrived in Union Square about 90 minutes later, the pickup wasn’t ready. It took another 15-minute wait to leave the store with our purchase, but only after an astute attendant at the pickup counter intervened to prevent an order picker from giving us an “open box” sample of the Yoga C940 when we had paid full price for a factory-fresh unit. Best Buy's goal "is to make sure our customers have a great experience every time they enter our stores and we apologize it didn’t happen in this case," emailed spokesperson Jeff Shelman Monday. "We have made strides toward improving our customer service, but this experience clearly didn’t meet the expectations we set for ourselves.”