As retailers gear up for the traditional shop-fest known as Black Friday, they are focusing on the mobs that line up outside stores and—increasingly—on the masses that shop online from home.
Chain stores prefer impulse-purchase-prone store shoppers. Yet sales growth during the busy Thanksgiving weekend more often is coming from Internet shoppers like Melanie Cortese.
Going to Woodbridge Center Mall with her mom on Black Friday was a family tradition for Ms. Cortese, a 37-year-old New Jersey mother of two. But no longer: she plans to go to bed on Thanksgiving night with a laptop nearby and wake up on Black Friday to shop online instead.
"It is bittersweet, but these days it doesn't pay to wait in line when you can sit in your PJs, spend time with your family and shop online for the same deals," Ms. Cortese said.
Such online shoppers accounted for nearly 40% of the $52.4 billion spent during the Black Friday weekend last year, according to the National Retail Federation. In contrast, online shopping accounted for just 23% of Black Friday spending in 2006.
That has Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Target Inc. (TGT) and Brookstone Inc., the electronics and gift retailer, dangling some of the same in-store Black Friday promotions to their online customers.
"If you've taken the time to invest in building a relationship with Wal-Mart, we want to make sure we take care of you, especially on a really busy day for our customers," said Gibu Thomas, the Bentonville, Ark., company's senior vice president of mobile and digital.
Wal-Mart will offer some in-store deeply discounted items only to online customers who first download the retailer's mobile app, sign up for special emails, or like the company on its Facebook (FB) page.
Best Buy Co. (BBY), which is offering some door buster discounts to its online customers again this year, said it doesn't think the online discounts would steal sales from its stores, but rather will prevent customers who prefer shopping online from making purchases on rivals' websites. The company is even offering an early-bird special to its highest-spending customers, who can put in orders for online discounts on Monday, Nov. 19.
Not all workers are happy about retailers opening their stores on Thanksgiving evening and cutting into family time.
Two Target workers this year created online petitions asking the retailer to save Thanksgiving from Black Friday encroachment. One online petition has gathered more than 200,000 names, including Target stockholders.
"Opening time was carefully evaluated with the expectations of our guests and the needs of our business and team in mind," Target said.
Retailers can't turn their back on shoppers who like to go to the stores. For example, Brookstone sells technology items that need salespeople to demonstrate the products and let shoppers play with them, said Chief Executive Stephen Bebis.
And while customers flock to the super-discounts, which for the retailers are often loss leaders, a lot of full-price selling also occurs on the day, retailers say.
"It is one of our most profitable days," said, Jim Kunihiro, chief marketing officer for Sears Holdings Corp.'s (SHLD) Sears.
Like many retailers seeking to get the jump on their competitors, Sears is opening for the first time on Thanksgiving Day for a first round of door busters at 8 p.m., followed by another round of special discounts at 4 a.m. Friday.
The retailer also is luring online shoppers; members of its loyalty program can order door busters such as a $97 HD television or $39.99 Nook e-reader online Sunday, Nov. 18, and then pick up the items in store.
Wal-Mart will begin offering door-buster specials on toys at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, two hours earlier than last year, followed by special discounts on electronics at 10 p.m. To lure shoppers back into the store the next day, it will pitch special deals on jewelry and clothing beginning at 5 a.m.
For the first time Wal-Mart is guaranteeing that people waiting in line for specials on an iPad 2, a 32-inch Emerson television or an LG Blu-ray player will get these products before Christmas if the store runs out.
To lure customers to its stores at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving and again at 4 a.m. on Friday, Target is offering surprise door busters in addition to advertised specials and giving $10 gift cards to shoppers who spend more than $50 between 4 a.m. and noon on Friday.
For many shoppers, the holiday ritual can't be duplicated by clicking a computer mouse.
"Going to the stores means instant gratification," said Melinda Miller, 31, who has been going to the Market Place Mall in Champaign, Ill. on Black Friday for nearly a decade. "Online, you'd miss out on all the fun."
She plans to take Friday off from her job, wake before 3 a.m., and scour the Black Friday ads to craft a shopping schedule in 30-minute increments. Her first stop: Shoe Carnival (SCVL), which gives out $10 gift cards to the first 100 shoppers through the door.
For home-shopping retailer QVC Inc., Thanksgiving has become important, with sales increasing 60% over the last four years, said CEO Mike George.
Just a few years back, Thanksgiving Day was a slower day for the company. Now, QVC has beefed up its programming and outreach to get its customers shopping a day earlier.
This year, QVC is kicking off Black Friday deals on midnight on Wednesday. "It is just the evolution," Mr. George said.
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