As sure as the starting gates opened at Fairgrounds Race Track Thursday, Black Friday is the start of a furious 2019 Christmas Shopping Season.
This year's retail horse race has yet to be defined by that one big gift everybody wants and is willing to fight each other in a WWE-like showdown on the floor of the nearest discount retail superstore.
"I don't anything, any one particular item, that is the must have other than Apple, of course, coming out with their new iPhone, that's going to be a hot item," says Retail and Marketing Specialist Jim DeBetta. "TV's, drones, and other things that just continue to be popular at retailers as they are."
If you can't get what you want on Black Friday, there's always Cyber Monday. The growing trend of on-line shopping is convenient, but is it the death knell for Malls and brick and mortar? "What's happening with brick-and-mortar is it's still 80% of retail shopping is still done in brick-and-mortar," DeBetta says. "So, despite what people think, brick-and-mortar certainly is not dead. Although on-line is still gaining speed."
Black Friday and the Christmas Shopping Season is a carefully orchestrated race among retailers to get people to buy their gifts from their stores be-it on-line or at the Mall.
"The stores that are being different, the ones that are really taking the in-store experience to a different level, can cross-promote and have a broad channel strategy--drive people back-and-forth from the internet to the store. All of that is what's allowing some retailers to continue to survive.
If Black Friday is the day retailers break-even on the year. The Christmas Shopping Season is where profits get made and dividends get paid. DeBetta And a lot of stores we've known over our lifetime haven't made it. "The ones that don't keep up with the technology, the ones that don't provide the great in-store experience, they're not allowing people with smart phones to interact in the store, those are the ones that are folding. And the ones that are progressive are the ones that will continue to stay."
DeBetta says every major chain that's gone out of business in the last few years were unable to coordinate their on-line shopping platforms with the ability to draw shoppers to their locations.
