Shoppers starting late this season
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Some surveys find that as of last weekend, consumers had completed less than 15 percent of their holiday shopping.
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With a weak back-to-school season behind them, the nation&#39;s retailers are focused on the holidays and what steps they need to take to get consumers excited about shopping again.
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With just two weeks to go until Christmas the nation's retailers should be getting worried that consumers have been slow to rev up the pace of their holiday shopping, industry experts said Monday.
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Last-minute shoppers who hoped to beat the flood of Christmas-crazed gift buyers woke before dawn every day this week and arrived at retailers the moment they opened.
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hoAs the holiday season wound down, U.S. residents kept on shopping significantly more than they did in 2006, particularly on the day after Christmas, but they also reported being less satisfied with e-tailers, according to a pair of studies.Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 27 -- the first 57 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers spent almost $28 billion in online retail purchases, up 19 percent compared with the same period in 2006, according to comScore.Shoppers spent $545 million on Dec. 26, more than doubling the spending on that day in 2006, as they took advantage of late-season offers and discounts, according to comScore.Still, it looks like online spending growth for the 2007 holiday season will fail to meet comScore&#39;s 20 percent forecast, and fall way below the 26 percent growth registered during this period in 2006.comScore chalks up the smaller-than-expected growth to several factors, including warm weather in early November and various economic challenges this year, including higher gas prices, the real estate crunch, and a &quot;jittery&quot; stock market, the company said Sunday.Another important metric that dropped this holiday season compared with 2006&#39;s was customer satisfaction, according to ForeSee Results, a provider of online customer-satisfaction measurement services.A survey of more than 11,000 shoppers revealed that, on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction with the largest 40 e-tailers dropped, in aggregate, to 74 points, down 1.3 points from the 2006 holiday season, according to ForeSee. It conducted the survey in conjunction with FGI Research using the methodology of the University of Michigan&#8217;s American Customer Satisfaction Index.Still, the spending growth in online shopping this holiday season, even at 19 percent, would greatly outpace the growth of overall U.S. retail holiday spending, forecast at 4 percent by the National Retail Federation.That 4 percent growth rate -- which would put 2007 holiday season retail spending in the United States at almost $475 billion -- would fall below the 10-year average of 4.8 percent and be the slowest since 2002, according to the National Retail Federation.
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The holiday shopping season is off to a running start, according to surveys released this weekend, though it was still unclear how that will impact retailers' profits.
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_ The holiday shopping season began with a surge in spending but consumers faded by the long Thanksgiving weekend&#39;s close and many retailers were facing decent but hardly impressive sales.
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Last-minute shoppers saved the Christmas season for retailers with a surge of spending last week. Sales were up 11.6 percent for the week compared with last year, according to ShopperTrak.
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Believe it or not, there&#39;s only 75 days remaining until the frenzied shopping season cranks to life, and no, we&#39;re not talking about holiday gift-giving.
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Shoppers picked up their pace in October after two lackluster months, brightening retailers' prospects for a good holiday season.
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Where the shoppers are and what they're finding.
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The holiday shopping season is ending on a better note than it began, and most retailers are on track to meet humble sales goals. Still, retailers hope for a boost the week after Christmas as consumers cash in gift cards.
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Despite generous discounting and expanded shopping hours earlier in the season, many stores are finding themselves in the same predicament as in recent years: waiting for those last-minute shoppers in the final days before Christmas who seem to be procrastinating even more than a year ago.
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Merchants who spent the past few weeks hoping shoppers would splurge on gifts opened their doors Sunday with high hopes people would now spend on themselves.
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With less than two weeks until Christmas, consumers don&#39;t seem to be in a big rush to finish their holiday shopping, evidence from two groups that track sales confirmed on Tuesday.
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The nation's consumers, uninspired by this season's fashions and rattled by high gas prices and the weak housing market, shopped gingerly last month, extending the misery of retailers who have struggled with a spending slowdown since February.
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The holiday shopping season got off to a modest start after bargain-hunters jammed malls on Friday for early bird specials but did less buying the rest of the weekend after the sales ended.