The shopping frenzy we've come to know as Black Friday is growing into a seasonal marathon starting just after Halloween and stretching past Christ-mas all the way to New Year's Day.
It's not just your imagination that the shopping season feels increasingly protracted. And the trend's not going away. Online shopping sales for November and December are expected to reach $54.5 billion, a 16.8 percent increase over 2011, according to research firm eMarketer, which is closely tracking holiday trends.
The ways people are online shopping are also changing
dramatically, and 2012 may be the tipping point for a few new options that were just starting to gather steam last holiday season. This year, you can expect to see more people shopping by smartphone
and tablet via apps, more deals tied to popular social networks like Pinter-est and Instagram, more widespread daily deals from online
and traditional retailers, and some new tricks for hardcore deal hunters looking to save some extra dollars.
Here's awhat to expect.
Price matching and same-day shipping. Brick-and-mortar retailers used to whine that online sellers like Amazon were destroying their
business with low-ball pricing and by urging shoppers with
smartphones to use brick-and-mortar stores as showcases, then buying
online. This year, the gloves are off. Target, Best Buy, Macy's,
Nordstrom and others are offering to match prices against online
retailers and offering options like same-day shipping and in-store
pickup to level the playing field.
Retailers have also gotten more aggressive about daily email
deals and early Black November promotions on their websites.
Shopping by phone and by tablet. The whole concept of Cyber
Monday, which takes place this year on Nov. 26, came from bored
office workers using their employers' fast Internet connections to
get their Christ-mas shopping done online. A surprising amount of
shopping, though, is now shifting away from the computer desktop and
onto phones and, in particular, tablets like the iPad. SteelHouse, a
research firm, says that in a survey it conducted of 300 U.S.
shoppers, 52 percent of owners say they plan to spend more money
this year using their tablets for holiday shopping. The online
shopping site PriceGrabber's own holiday survey suggests 66 percent
of shoppers will make purchases directly from their phones.
Using mobile devices while shopping has a few clear advantages.
You can compare prices with other stores while you're shopping in
person, look up reviews of sale items like HDTVs or video games, or
double-check a loved one's shopping list if they keep it online.
Apps and mobile websites are also useful for getting product
recommendations or checking store inventory.
Retailer apps and mobile-friendly websites in general have
greatly improved over the clunky, slow interfaces of the past and so
have our mobile Internet speeds.
This year may also mark a change in the way people use coupons
with mobile devices. Coupons.com, Valpak (which is owned by this
newspaper's parent company, Cox Media Group), Target and Walgreens,
among others, are using Apple's "Passbook" app on newer mobile
devices to make mobile coupons easier to keep track of and scan in
stores.
Bargain hunters have got some new tools. Websites like Slickdeals
and FatWallet for bargain-hunting shoppers have gotten increasingly
mainstream over the last few years and have expanded into social
media, apps and in the case of FatWallet, even a cash-back rewards
program.
That's something you can expect to see more this year from credit card companies and upstarts like Shopkick and My-Points in addition to retailers themselves. Loyalty programs sometimes offer as much as double-digit percentages for money back on what you buy or store credit toward buying items later, such as Buy.com's Rakuten points program.
Our advice. That's a lot of information to digest, but you can take away this: Seek deals both online and in stores this year, stick to trusted retailers and online deal sites (especially when dealing with cash-back programs) and pace yourself. Many of the best online deals may not be available until after Thanksgiving. And all those deals happening after Christmas? It's never too early to get started on your shopping for 2013.
