“This is a big weekend,” said Gordon Gough, president and CEO of the Ohio Council for Retail Merchants. “This is obviously the last weekend before Christmas. Consumers who are wanting to buy things online will need to make their purchases soon in order to get the expedited shipping, or they’re shopping in the brick-and-mortar stores this weekend to make their purchases.”
RELATED: Shoppers hit spending record on Cyber Monday
According to a new report from the National Retail Federation, most consumers haven’t finished their holiday shopping. Only one in 10 consumers had completed their shopping by mid-December. A busy retail season is crucial for a healthy economy, because more than 30 percent of all retail revenue is brought in during November and December.
More than 38 percent of consumers said they planned to finish their shopping sometime before Dec. 18, but about 12 percent of shoppers said that they plan to wait until Dec. 23.
“While many consumers got a head start with holiday shopping by taking advantage of extraordinary sales over Thanksgiving weekend, more shopping and great deals are yet to come,” said Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO. “We expect retailers will once again be competitive on price and value options in the final stretch, especially on Super Saturday.”
In Ohio, all indicators show that sales are up. The Ohio Council of Retail Merchants and the University of Cincinnati Economics Center found that the state is likely to see a 1.54 percent increase in holiday retail spending this year.
RELATED: Thanksgiving sales steal shoppers from Black Friday
In 2015, holiday sales resulted in more than $21 billion in revenue in Ohio. In Dayton, holiday spending is expected to increase by about 1.7 percent. Among metropolitan areas in the state, Dayton had the second-slowest rate of growth when compared to Lima, Mansfield, Youngstown, Toledo, Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.
"We had an extremely strong turnout on Black Friday and the following weekend at The Greene, and we believe this trend will continue throughout the holiday season," said Steve Willshaw, general manager of The Greene Town Center in Beavercreek. "During Thanksgiving weekend, we saw the highest vehicle traffic since the center opened a decade ago."
What’s causing some of the holiday season slowdown? Jennifer Shand, senior research associate for the UC Economics Center, said Ohio retail sales could be influenced by national trends shifting consumer preferences toward mobile and online sales.
RELATED: 8 things to know about holiday shopping
“Mobile and online sales continue to grow as well, as consumers enjoy the competition for their dollars shown in more price, product and service options,” she said.
Adobe Digital Insights data show that more than $52 billion has been spent online so far this holiday season. On Cyber Monday, consumers spent about $3.45 billion online, a 12 percent increase from 2015. It was the largest day of online sales in history.
“We are actually seeing more and more sales going to online,” Gough said. “Retail is retail. Either the transaction occurs in the brick-and-mortar establishment or happens on the e-commerce website.”
The increase in online sales has created a demand for more reliable and expedited delivery practices. The majority of products bought online or via mobile in the U.S. — more than 95 percent — are shipped by FedEx, UPS or the United States Postal Service. These three services combined will deliver more than 1 billion packages this season, and they’re warning customers to be aware of delivery deadlines if they want their packages to arrive in time for the holidays.
RELATED: After Cyber Monday, there’s Giving Tuesday
As online shopping increases, services like UPS and Amazon are expanding their distribution centers and hiring more workers. UPS planned to employ more than 95,000 seasonal workers, including delivery drivers, loaders and package sorters.
“In addition to investing in temporary seasonal processing facilities, UPS is implementing new technology and automation systems to increase capacity, efficiency and flexibility within the operations,” said Kate Gutmann, senior vice president of UPS sales and solutions.
FedEx is adding more than 50,000 additional positions leading up to the peak season, and has added 30 new aircraft since last year. U.S. Postal Service has hired 35,000 seasonal employees.
RELATED: Small businesses try to lure customers in after Black Friday
United Parcel Service, the world’s largest package delivery company, has estimated it will deliver more than 700 million packages during the holiday season. ShipMatrix, a software company that analyzes millions of packages, found deliveries were arriving slightly later last week than normal.
“We’ll get to a point next week, where expedited shipping may not get the items to someone’s house,” Gough said. “Getting into Monday and Tuesday, their only option is going to be getting their gifts in the brick-and-mortar stores.”
By the Numbers
$655 billion will be spent nationwide in sales revenue during the holidays
12 percent of people will wait until Dec. 23 to finish their shopping
$22 billion will be spent in stores in Ohio this holiday season
Source: National Retail Federation
About the Author