Four days into November, and already the holiday emails are flooding inboxes — even though Black Friday is just under four weeks away.
Multiple holiday shopping surveys say most people start holiday shopping before Black Friday anyway. Bankrate’s survey results will really make you feel behind: About half of respondents said they had planned to shop before November.
So why is this happening? And is this early messaging a permanent holiday tradition?
There’s a short-term answer and a long-term answer. Short term, Thanksgiving is late this year, so the traditional holiday season is shorter.
This year, companies bought holiday inventory early, “as part of their planning for the potential port strikes,” said principal retail and e-commerce analyst Sky Canaves with EMARKETER. “And once retailers have inventory on hand, they might as well start trying to move it.”
That’s because they don’t want to risk having stuff leftover in January.
The long-term answer hearkens back to the pandemic, when supply chain issues created a sense of urgency and scarcity, according to Dana Olsen, director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
“And we were told that, as customers, if you want to buy this item, you better buy it now, because we might not get it back in stock,” she said.
The pandemic eroded the Black Friday traditions too. Now, those deals can just happen earlier, noted retailing professor Patricia Huddleston at Michigan State University.
“In order to continue to get consumers to shop, retailers will offer discounts or special pricing or sometimes limited edition products too, because that will also bring people in,” she said.
The earlier, longer holiday season is likely here to stay, Huddleston added. But she doesn’t expect it to get much earlier than September. That season still belongs to summer vacations — and back-to-school shopping.
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