How Retailers Should Prep for a Weird Black Friday
Here are five tips to ensure a safe, socially distanced and successful holiday shopping season in Covid time.
Lines, masks, social distancing: welcome to the pandemic shopping experience.
Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg
The pandemic and its economic fallout are going to make it exceedingly difficult for retailers to have a merry Christmas. The industry is expected to see an uptick in seasonal sales of a measly 1% to 1.5%, according to a forecast released Tuesday by Deloitte, which would be well below the 4.1% increase the industry recorded last year.
New shopping patterns that are a reaction to Covid-19 have rendered retailers’ old holiday playbooks useless. Big names such as Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co. have already acknowledged as much by announcing that they will close their brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving, the day that has served as the kickoff for Black Friday deals for the last decade or so. Macy's Inc., which aims to whip up seasonal cheer with its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, has announced the festivities will be reworked for a mostly television audience.