The less than cooperative weather may be responsible for as much as $1 billion in lost retail sales after Christmas
The blizzard that swept across the Northeast closed stores and stranded shoppers at home and travelers at airports. With shoppers unable to get out, retailers are expecting a $1 billion loss in sales on the day after Christmas.
The Northeast was also hit hard last year by a storm that took sales away from their pre-Christmas shopping. They estimated that storm cost retailers almost $2 billion in sales.
ShopperTrak is a shopping research firm that tracks customer spending. According to the firm’s estimates, from Decmeber 26 to December 27 there are nearly $10 billion in sales, as it is a couple of the biggest shopping days of the year. With the blizzard that paralyzed cities, they estimate about a 10 percent loss in sales, giving them the estimate of $1 billion lost in sales.
With so many gift cards being given out, retailers are confident that shoppers will be back to spend. Even though they received a gift card, that usually only accounts for 5% to 10% of sales, as a shoppers always spend more. Retailers are counting on shoppers coming out in the next few days to help boost sales before the year’s end. The months of November and December account for nearly 50 % of profit and revenue for retailers.
E-tailers did see an increase in sales as many were snowed in. The sales were even higher than their record setting days earlier this year. On Wednesday those numbers and percentages of online sales should be released.
Black Friday was again the busiest shopping day of the year with $10.69 billion in sales, followed by December 23 as $7.86 billion worth of gifts were purchased last minute.
