As of Holiday 2013, both traditional and non-traditional retailers such as Walmart and Amazon, have seen a combination shopping pattern from customers, between recent in store and online buying.
Americans are showing discretion in spending from the incertitude of the economy. Traditional retailers, such as Walmart, are being challenged with business performance as a result. Yet online retailers, like Amazon, are seeing a lift in business outcomes, from customers choosing to buy via the web versus going into physical stores to make purchases.
According to the research from the firm Comscore, shopping via the web increased 10 percent to $46.5 billion between November and December. However ShopperTrak, which tracks data at 40,000 stores in the US, reports sales at stores increased just 2.7 percent to $265.9 billion. And the quantity of customers shopping in stores decreased 14.6 percent.
"Consumer behavior evolved quickly, as retail foot traffic fell, while online purchases grew," said Mattel's CEO, Bryan Stockton, in a call with investors on Friday, writes USA Today.
The customer shopping pattern became visible during the climax of the holiday shopping season, a timeframe between November and December which is seen as a period when retailers can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue. In total, government statistics provide evidence that customer spend during the timeframe of October through December increased significantly faster in comparison of the last three years.
The Kansas City Star quotes Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a research firm, as stating, "Wal-Mart is among 33 major retailers that have lowered their outlooks for the fourth quarter and beyond, mostly because of the disappointing holiday shopping season. A highly competitive environment is going to be staring retailers in the face throughout the course of 2014. The pressure and competition are not going to abate at all."
Amazon conveyed on late Thursday, in contrast to it's traditional retailing peers, a different resulting view point, stating that both its profit and revenue experienced key growth in the recent quarter. The online retailer also commented its results dropped below what Wall Street was predicting, bringing its shares down 11 percent on Friday.
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