Retailers Looking to Online Storefronts to Help Holiday Sales
Retailers are hoping that online shopping will save them this holiday season. All signs point to a bigger online shopping year. With smaller budgets, less time and the swine flu, analysts say many people will shop online to take advantage of bargains, coupons and free shipping. They expect the hassle factor also to come into play, as many people find it easier to find specific items on the Web than at the mall.
Web sites run by Macy's Inc., Gap Inc. and Urban Outfitters Inc. may prop up retail sales this holiday season as discounts and online improvements drive more shoppers to their computers.
Macy's reported a 15 percent increase in online sales for the month of September, compared with a 2.4 percent decline in total revenue. In the second quarter, the most recent period available, Gap's online sales climbed 17 percent, compared with a 7.3 percent drop in total. Urban Outfitters Web sales also jumped 17 percent in that period, outpacing a 1 percent advance.
"There is momentum," John Kyees, chief financial officer of Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, said in an interview. "With the recession and everyone being laid off, it's probably easier to order from home and have it sent there rather than walking in the store and carrying a bunch of bags out."
Retailers' investments in sites, the ability to compare prices online and the decline of in-store inventories are fueling growth, according to George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in Carlsbad, California. Consumers reluctant to splurge on clothes and shoes are increasingly hunting for bargains on the Web.
"Online sales are going to help propel us out of this recession," Whalin said. "As we begin to get back to shopping and we begin to buy more, the online place is going to be the place we do it first just purely because of the convenience of it all."
We hear that. For holiday gift buying, we find online shopping to be so much easier, not to mention faster and cheaper. This year there will be amazing coupons and lots of free shipping offers for early shoppers.
