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The 10 Busiest Shopping Days At Stores: Why They Now Matter More To Stores Than Shoppers

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Black Friday and the other busiest shopping days of holiday 2019 won’t be as busy as in the past, but they are still important, according to the company that each year predicts the 10 days when stores and malls will be the most crowded.

With surveys and retail forecasters saying online is the future and that malls are becoming ghost towns, does a list of 10 busiest in-store shopping days even matter anymore?

Yes it does, says Bjoern Petersen, president at Sensormatic Solutions, the global retail solutions provider that took on the task of releasing the busiest days list following the 2016 acquisition of ShopperTrak by its parent company.

But unlike previous years, when the lists were cited mostly as a way for shoppers to plan their holiday shopping to avoid crushing crowds, the value of the lists today lies in helping stores prepare to perform well on those days when shoppers are most likely to show up, Petersen said in an interview.

Understanding when the peak times will be can help retailers do a better job of scheduling employees and managing inventory, something that is especially important to meet the growing demand for BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) orders, Petersen said.

Anyone who remembers Black Friday crowds from the pre-2007 era is never going to think their local mall is crowded on Black Friday 2019.

It used to be the mall was the best, and in some cases, the only, option for holiday shopping. Now people who don’t like in-store crowds can shop online, and most retailers offer the same Black Friday discounts on their websites as they do in their stores.

“Don’t expect big crowds at the mall,” this holiday season CNBC reported Monday, citing an OpenX/Harris Poll survey that concluded that this year, for the first time, consumers plan to spend more online than in stores.

Black Friday still will be the busiest day of holiday 2019 for store traffic, although not as busy as Black Fridays of years gone by.

Retail analysts who have been debating the “Is Black Friday” dead question for the past decade generally have concluded that it is not dead, just very different.

Americans will still go to the malls and the big boxes like Walmart and Target and Best Buy in large numbers on Black Friday because it’s the thing you do on the day after Thanksgiving. But more of the shoppers in the malls this year will be checking out items to buy later online, or browsing, dining, or going to the movies, rather than filling up shopping bags.

Although mall and store foot traffic declining, compared to historical levels, this is expected to be a robust holiday for spending. The annual Deloitte holiday survey predicts spending will grow by 4.5% to 5%, and top $1.1 trillion. But with in-store shopping shifting to online, it is more important than ever that retailers be prepared for peak shopping days, and make sure they have the staff—and the inventory—to keep shoppers happy on those days, Petersen said.

According to the Sensormatic Solutions list released today, the 10 busiest days for in-store foot traffic this year will be:

  1.    Black Friday, November 29
  2.    December 21, the last Saturday before Christmas
  3.    December 26, the day after Christmas
  4.    December 14, two Saturdays before Christmas
  5.    November 30, the Saturday after Black Friday
  6.    December 22, the last Sunday before Christmas
  7.    December 23, the Monday before Christmas
  8.    December 28, the Saturday after Christmas
  9.    December 27, the Friday after Christmas
  10.    December 7, the first Saturday in December

The list is based on Sensormatic statistics from previous years showing in-store traffic peak periods. After Christmas, usually in January, Sensormatic publishes a list of the actual busiest days of the season.

“If you compare prior years of predictions to what actually played out in the market we have a very very high accuracy rate,” Petersen said.

Traffic patterns this year should match up with 2013, another year with a late Thanksgiving, and a short holiday shopping window, with only three Saturday shopping days in December before Christmas, according to Sensormatic.

Being ready for shoppers when they come to a store is important, Petersen said, because two-thirds of impulse purchases occur in stores. If a customer has a good experience and the store is well staffed, with lines moving quickly, with merchandise in stock, a shopper is more likely to make additional impulse purchases.

One factor, Petersen said, that might cause shifts in shopping patterns is the growing popularity of BOPIS. Customers who order online for in-store pickup may be more likely to stop at a store on a weeknight after work, for a quick pickup, rather than thinking they needed to devote part of a Saturday to shopping.

The busiest days for BOPIS? Sensormatic hasn’t researched that yet, but that could be a good idea for future lists, Petersen said.

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