It’s Christmas Eve, so hopefully your holiday shopping is complete.
But don’t feel bad if you haven’t started. Going into the final week of shopping before Christmas, about 20 percent of people hadn’t bought one gift yet, according to a consumer survey from the National Retail Federation.
“We’re expecting the mall to be very busy [today],” Wendy Ellis, marketing director at Arundel Mills, said Tuesday afternoon.
If it feels as if Christmas arrived quicker than usual this year, it’s because it has. With Thanksgiving falling five days later this year than last year, the holiday shopping season has been compressed for both retailers and shoppers.
“The shopping season has still really run a very traditional pattern,” Ellis said. “You get that huge rush at the start of the season on Black Friday, then it slows down a little bit, then really picks up the last two weeks before Christmas.”
That last-minute rush, along with the fact many people have taken time off this week before the holiday, means very busy malls, department stores and discounters. While about one in five shoppers haven’t started their shopping, the average shopper has completed about 65 percent of his or her shopping.
“The week before Christmas will be one of the most important periods of the year for retailers,” said National Retail Federation President Tracy Mullin. “Retailers will try to make last-minute shopping easier for holiday procrastinators by offering incredible promotions and gift ideas within a certain budget.”
With the day after Christmas falling on a Friday, Ellis said she could see shopping centers flooded with people returning gifts and making purchases with gift cards. Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 over Black Friday weekend, up 7.2 percent from last year’s average of $347.55, according to the NRF. Total spending reached an estimated $41 billion.
“This year, after Christmas, there are going to be some huge bargains out there for shoppers,” Ellis said.
Last year, when the U.S. economic slowdown was in its infancy, the NRF predicted holiday sales would increase 4 percent to $474.5 billion. When the dust settled on a sluggish season, sales increased 3 percent to $469.9 billion — the weakest annual growth since sales rose 1.3 percent in 2002.
This year, the NRF scaled back its projection, saying sales will rise 2.2 percent to $470.4 billion, a gain well below the 10-year average of 4.4 percent sales growth.
