Tuesday, November 8, 2011

With national retail sales expected to increase only slightly throughout the entire holiday season, just 10 days will make or break the period for retailers, according to ShopperTrak, the respected provider of retail foot traffic counting, managed services and business analytics.  

According to ShopperTrak, the week before Christmas will be especially important this year, as five of the top sales and foot traffic days will occur between Dec. 18th and Decth. 24. While Black Friday is typically the strongest shopping day of the season, one third of all holiday sales are historically made in the week prior to Christmas. Retailers can expect consumers walking into their stores that week have conducted plenty of online research and are ready to buy.

Prior to Christmas, ShopperTrak expects Black Friday (Friday, Nov. 25th) to remain the top performing sales and foot-traffic day for the eighth year in a row, followed by Super Saturday on Dec. 17. Last year, Black Friday showed an increase in both sales and foot traffic over 2009; foot traffic increased 2.2% and sales increased 0.3%, representing $10.69 billion in consumer spending and the largest dollar amount ever spent on the day.

The following list shows ShopperTrak's forecasted busiest holiday sales days (with their ranking as foot-traffic days in parentheses):

1. Friday, November 25 (1)
2. Saturday, December 17 (2)
3. Friday, December 23 (4)
4. Monday, December 26 (3)
5. Thursday, December 22 (7)
6. Saturday, November 26 (6)
7. Sunday, December 18 (9)
8. Saturday, December 10 (5)
9. Monday, December 19 (10)
10. Saturday, December 3 (8)

Why don’t you create countdown programs for advertisers?  Share this important news with them.  Help them build an advertising program around consumer’s habits.

(Source: ShopperTrak, 11/01/11)