Shoppers hunt for deals, hit the shops for entertainment

“I’m just looking for Christmas gifts, and stuff for myself”, Ladeja Holland said as she shopped at Zona Rosa.

“It seemed like traffic was fairly healthy today”.

“It could be while retailers have an okay Christmas from a sales point of view, from a profit point of view it’s not as healthy as it was previous year”, said Neil Saunders, managing director at Conlumino, a retail consulting firm. “I think there had been pent-up demand”.

The beleaguered department-store industry, facing declining mall traffic and mounting online competition, will need more than Santa Claus to get customers in the door this year.

Olson, who is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, said she had done some online shopping but preferred making in-person stops, saying she felt better deals were to be had that way – free shipping for online purchases aside.

Online shopping also might have contributed to the light crowds Friday, Bierman said. Coupled with a holiday weekend that concludes with Cyber Monday “Black Friday as a core shopping event that used to always be in the top five (shopping days) continues to decrease in importance”.

Most of these initiatives come at a cost, though retailers see them as long-term investments as they seek to build their online link to customers. Online sales account for the bulk of this measure, the group said. Tiffany Williams said the group goes every year, and it is a chance to spend time with her friends, without children.

“We leave around 4 p.m. and usually head to the Paris Walmart and start there”, she said.

That’s partly because “retailers have made it not just Black Friday day – it’s Black Friday week”, says Maureen Atkinson, a senior partner with retail consultancy Global Retail Advisors. “We’re excited; shoppers are excited”, she said.

That said, people still clogged physical stores. “Consumers were clearly out to buy”. “We started last night with the Walmart thing. Consumers were clearly out to buy”, Cohen said.

Aside from the doorbusters, some retail lovers reserved their spending for exclusively Black Friday to not interfere with the Thanksgiving holiday.

People are shopping until they drop over at Sawgrass Mills where the deals and steals are posted all throughout the mall. “They’ve done a lot of hyping up through digital advertising and promotions”.

As a result, this year’s Black Friday could be record-setting. They bought TVs, Toshiba TVs, 4K.

“I couldn’t believe I did it”, she said.

“We saw one of our strongest days ever online”, Brian Cornell, chief executive of discount retailer Target, told reporters on Thursday evening.

Target reported more than 60% of its online sales came from mobile customers, while Amazon reported mobile orders on Turkey Day exceeded Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday past year.

“My sense is that traffic is not what is used to be (on Black Friday)”, said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of MA.

The frenzied shopping day that is typically marked by a mad rush for doorbuster deals has been replaced by Thanksgiving Day and online shopping. The e-commerce giant has been running with deals all month long. Rampant discounting is more intense this year. According to a CBS News article, a DealNews survey found that 83 percent of shoppers plan to participate in this most popular online shopping day of the year.

“It’s nearly like the online stores are setting the agenda”.