Black Friday in-store shopping is making a "Swift" comeback
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Black Friday in-store shopping is making a comeback this year and even Swifties are fueling the trend.
The big picture: Five years after COVID changed the shopping holiday, retailers are returning with in-store deals to entice customers.
What we're hearing: "We've actually been calling 2024 the 'Year of the store,' and we've seen such strong demand for physical retail space this year," Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, told Axios.
By the numbers: 63% of holiday shoppers are expected to shop both online and in-store compared to 22% of consumers who are shopping exclusively online, a RetailMeNot survey of 1,200 adults found.
- Also this year: A record 183.4 million shoppers are expected to shop between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday with Black Friday projected to be the busiest day, according to the National Retail Federation holiday survey. That's an increase from last year's record of 182 million.
Zoom in: Target is appealing to Swifties by releasing exclusive Taylor Swift merchandise in its stores.
- Target stores opened early this morning to sell the official "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book" and "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" with bonus songs on vinyl and CD, while supplies last.
- The items will be available Saturday on the Target app and on Target.com.
"They're going to come in and they're going to buy," Jeff Galak, marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, told Axios about Target's Taylor Swift products. "That is more sales that Target can expect as compared to if they only offered that online or if they offered it early online."
State of play: Releasing exclusive items in stores first is a reversal from recent years when popular items were pushed online first to reduce crowds in the early days of the pandemic.
- In-store-only doorbusters, a key reason shoppers camped out ahead of sales, have also been slow to return.
- There still will be deals this year, but most, with a few exceptions, have been online for days and weeks. JCPenney and Kohl's are dangling early-morning in-store coupon giveaways to entice shoppers to head to stores.
What's next: "Shipping logistics are going to be critical this year," with a narrower shipping window" than in past years, Stephanie Carls, RetailMeNot retail insights expert, told Axios.
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