Sales in stores in the snow-battered East Coast may have been sparse this weekend, but shoppers kept spending online. Retailers spurred sales with new discounts and shipping offers to make sure gifts arrive by Christmas.
The storm that battered the East Coast, from the Carolinas to New York, may have put at least a $2 billion dent in "Super Saturday," which usually accounts for $15 billion worth of sales nationwide, according to weather research firm Planalytics.
Mall traffic was down 10 percent on Saturday, but it surged 65 percent Friday night as more people went out in the storm. Retailers that have must-have items such as Toys R Us, Best Buy, and one-stop shops such as Wal-Mart are poised to recover the lost sales better than the rest of the industry, Planalytics said yesterday.
But not all shopping was lost. Many shoppers such as Tina Bashline turned on their computers to whittle down their Christmas lists. She bought gifts for eight people -- the bulk of her holiday shopping -- from her home in Newtown, Pa., where more than a foot of snow fell.
"You should have seen what I was wearing," she said, laughing. "My hair was unwashed. I had a big old ugly sweater on, with a credit card in one hand and an address book in the other."
She had been deleting e-mail offers of free shipping and other discounts this month, but on Saturday, with more offers pouring in from such stores as Barnes & Noble and Staples, the 55-year-old figured she'd give them a chance.
Online retail sales rose 22.4 percent for the weekend compared with last year, Web research company Coremetrics said. On Saturday, sales were up 24.8 percent alone.
The firm also showed the average shopper spending and ordering more on Saturday, when the weather's effects were deepest, than Friday.
Even online sales yesterday morning were strong as shoppers raced to make purchases so they could be delivered by Christmas.
"This teaches consumers that maybe those of us that procrastinate, we still have time to go online very close to Christmas," said John Squire, Coremetrics' chief strategy officer.
Retailers were ready to prod those sales along. Amazon.com extended the cutoff for standard shipping by one day through yesterday, and free two-day shipping for electronics products. It would not release figures for weekend traffic.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement