Attention, holiday shoppers. This isn’t the year to procrastinate.
Christmas Eve falls on a Friday, and that means there is one less weekend than in most years to get your gifts purchased and wrapped.
The lost weekend is prompting retailers to find creative ways to get shoppers moving with doorbuster deals, stores open around the clock and free shipping deadlines that extend into next week.
“I don’t know if I’m not in the mood this year or what, but all of a sudden it’s here and I’m not ready,” said Lynn Biere, 62, of Gurnee, who as of Friday afternoon had only half of her Christmas shopping done. “It’s crunch time.”
Hordes of shoppers are expected to descend on the malls on what is known as Super Saturday, while another crush of consumers is being forecast to turn out Thursday. The last Saturday before Christmas and the day before Christmas Eve typically rank as the busiest shopping days of the year after Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving.
“The next week is a very critical week for the shopping season, from a historical perspective,” said Mike Berry, director of industry research at MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide. “For jewelry and luxury retailers in particular, the last seven days are extremely critical.”
Jewelry stores as a group generate 30 percent of their annual sales during the holidays, with the bulk of purchases happening in mid-December. The jewelry industry is banking on a rebound this year after watching sales plummet during the recession.
“This year Super Saturday is already facing a challenge and that is, it is seven days before the Christmas crunch,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group Inc. “So Saturday may not be as super as it’s been in past years.”
Retailers are making up for the missing shopping weekend with marathon hours.
Toys R Us plans to stay open for 88 hours in a row starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday and continuing until 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. It’s the first time that Toys R Us stores nationwide will stay open around the clock during the final countdown to Christmas.
The toy seller also will have its final sale of the season Tuesday and Wednesday, with toys more than 50 percent off, and will host midnight madness events starting Wednesday, with deals available from midnight until 6 a.m.
Several J.C. Penney stores will open as early as 6 a.m. and stay open as late as midnight in the days leading up to Christmas. And 15 Macy’s stores nationwide will be open for 83 consecutive hours, starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday. They include Macy’s stores at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook and Orland Square in Orland Park.
Those extended hours should help shoppers who have procrastinated. The average consumer still had more than half of holiday shopping remaining by the second week of December, and 37 million people had not started their shopping as of late last week, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, the retail trade group.
Mary Mancini, 38, of Kenosha, arrived at Westfield Hawthorn shopping center in Vernon Hills on Friday looking for toys, games and other gifts for her three children.
“I’ll probably be shopping all weekend, trying to find … the things they are wanting,” said Mancini. “Christmas is coming up too quickly this year. Before this weekend, I had nothing done.”
The weekend before Christmas is typically the time when bricks-and-mortar stores take over from online merchants. But this year, online retailers also are jumping into the last-minute fray. In the past, online retailers avoided guaranteeing arrivals for purchases made less than a week before Christmas without charging a premium shipping fee.
This year about 50 online merchants are offering free shipping for orders made as late as this weekend, and half of those retailers are going as far as offering free two-day shipping, according to Luke Knowles, founder of FreeShippingDay.com, a Web site that tracks free shipping deals.
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Even Amazon.com Inc., the largest online retailer, announced Thursday that it is extending the ordering deadline for free shipping with delivery in time for Christmas through Sunday. It is the latest date that Amazon has offered free shipping for the holidays.
“There is a general trend for merchants to give a faster shipping offer without charging a premium just to make the sale,” Knowles said.
Retailers can take some comfort in the fact that consumers are spending at a healthier clip than many experts had predicted.
Earlier this week, the National Retail Federation raised its holiday forecast to a 3.3 percent gain, from a previous projected increase of 2.3 percent. Likewise, consumer research firm ShopperTrak said it sees seasonal retail sales increasing 4 percent, the second time it increased its forecast from the 2.9 percent it originally predicted.
But that hasn’t stopped retailers from being aggressive.
Marketing expert Thomas Harpointner expects bricks-and-mortar retailers to squeeze extra sales out of consumers next week by offering Web-only deals that require shoppers to come into the store to pick up their purchase or their gift-with-purchase.
“It’s the last week when bricks-and-mortar retailers really have an advantage over their online counterparts,” said Harpointner, chief executive of AIS Media, an interactive marketing firm in Atlanta. “Once a retailer gets customers into the store, the likelihood that they will make a purchase is 20 to 30 percent. Getting the customer into the store is a key strategy.”
Kathy Greco, 61, of Beach Park, and Juanita Brewster, 63, of Mundelein, said they have been shopping every weekend since Black Friday, when they got to the stores at 5 a.m. They are in the home stretch, with about 25 percent of their combined shopping left to do.
“It’s a constant because I have eight grandchildren and three kids,” said Greco, who expects to finish her purchases this weekend and begin wrapping. “It’s a lot of gifts, a lot of shopping.”