Retailers and e-tailers prepare for Cyber Monday
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBSON: Now let’s get to e-tailers and retailers with Marshall Cohen. He’s chief retail analyst at the NPD Group. He joins us now live.
MARSHALL COHEN: Good morning.
HOBSON: How did retailers do over the big shopping weekend?
COHEN: Retailers actually stepped it up a notch this year. They did pretty well. Consumers went out in record numbers and actually even — not only did they shop, but they also purchased. They were gobbling up all kinds of bargains. The better the bargain, the more likely they were to buy.
HOBSON: Everybody wanted the bargains, and a lot of retailers were offering big discounts. What does that do to the low cost retailers like TJ Max and Wal-Mart that are always offering discounts. Do they suffer?
COHEN: The mass merchants that were in the door buster deal game did very well. The other off price retailers like TJ Max and Marshals, their day is still yet to come. The consumers go to shop at the full-priced retailers that are offering the big discounts and then in the next two weeks they’ll be heading into the discount outlet stores to be able to gobble up some of those good deals.
HOBSON: So that day is yet to come. Now today as we said is Cyber Monday. This is the day people allegedly go online at work and start to buy things. Does Cyber Monday — now that it’s so easy for everyone to go online and buy things anytime — does Cyber Monday still have the importance it did? Or is every day cyber-buy-day?
COHEN: Great question. This year, Cyber Monday is going to be even more important that than hype that is was really led to be. It’s the busiest shopping day online, but it wasn’t always the busiest purchasing day. But retailers this year — both brick-and-mortar retailers with online sites as well as pure-play retailers that only have commerce online — are going to be offering very competitive deals. So look for this year to be a very important day, but even more an important week. Retailers are extending these sales beyond just toady alone.
HOBSON: Marshall Cohen, chief retail analyst at the NPD Group.
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