Joel Evans, a professor and marketing expert at Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business was featured in an article in CBS New York’s business section. The article discusses retailer’s response to challenges posed by this year’s holiday season.
This year, Thanksgiving falls on the latest possible date, November 28. The holiday shopping season kicks off officially on the day after Thanksgiving (although many retailers are planning to open their stores for “Black Friday” sales on Thanksgiving itself, prompting some consumer backlash). Since Thanksgiving falls so late this year, the 2013 holiday shopping season will be the shortest in eleven years: six days shorter than last year.
The holiday shopping season is a crucial time for retailers. Companies often earn 30 to 50 percent of their annual revenue in the third quarter, partially because of holiday sales. A shorter holiday season can be a real threat to revenue.
While the shortened holiday shopping season is a curse for retailers, it may be a boon to shoppers. Retailers are trying to counteract the shortened season by offering deals earlier and more often this year. Joel Evans says that the deals will result in more opportunities for consumers to save: “[consumers] are going to have a lot of choices and they shouldn’t buy on full price”. The predictions of the National Retail Federation support his claim: they have estimated that in-store sales will rise 3.9 percent this year and online sales will rise 15 percent.
Dr. Evans is an RMI Distinguished Professor of Business and a Professor of Marketing and International Business at Zarb. His courses include “Principles of Marketing” and “Strategic Decisions for Online Marketing in a Global Marketplace”.