Sprint previewed holiday deals it’s planning for Monday, led by a freebie for the iPhone 11 for customers switching to the carrier and trading in an iPhone 6s or newer. Also free is an iPad 7 with 24-month contract, Sprint said. Switchers can get a Samsung Galaxy S10 free with a Flex contract. LG is rewarding G8X ThinQ buyers with a free 49-inch 4K smart TV if they buy a model with a dual screen for $15 monthly or the 5G version for $19 a month with a new line and 18-month contract. Customers who buy a Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 6 Bluetooth speaker for $199 get a $100 airline voucher.
Amazon's Black Friday will last for a week this holiday season, beginning Friday and running through the day after Thanksgiving, it said Monday. It plans more Deals of the Day than ever, and one-time-only deals launching throughout Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are expected to sell out. Amazon devices have top billing, with smart speakers getting steep discounts in a season when CTA predicts smart speakers will have a 42 percent year-on-year sales drop (see 1910240071). In staggered sales over the deal days, Echo Dot will available for $28 off to $22; Echo Dot with clock is $25 off to $35; the latest Echo is $40 off to $60 and Echo Input is $20 off to $15. Echo Show 5 is $40 off to $50, $55 bundled it with its smart plug. Fire TV devices will start at $20 for half-off savings, going up to $90 for the Fire TV Cube, savings of $30. Amazon’s Ring Video Doorbell Pro is $70 off to $179, but shoppers should hold out for the bundle with an Echo Show 5 at the same price. The Fire 7 tablet will skid in at $29, $20 off. An LG 82-inch 4K TV will be $1,699, Amazon said, one of the few Black Friday TV prices it detailed in the Monday announcement. In services, Amazon Music Unlimited customers can get four months of the premium streaming tier for 99 cents for a limited time, it said.
Some 165.3 million people are likely to shop Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, said a National Retail Federation-Prosper Insights report released Friday. Thanksgiving weekend holiday shopping, now a five-day event, has consumers making purchases “in stores, supporting local small businesses, and online with their mobile devices and computers,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay. Broken out by day, some 39.6 million consumers are considering shopping on Thanksgiving, 114.6 million on Black Friday, 66.6 million on Small Business Saturday and 33.3 million on Sunday. On Cyber Monday, 68.7 million are expected to shop online for bargains. Younger consumers are significantly more likely to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, with 88 percent of consumers 18-24 likely to shop and “enjoy the social aspect,” NRF said. Eighty-four percent 25-34 plan to shop over the five-day span vs. 69 percent of holiday shoppers overall. Among those planning to shop, 47 percent expect to begin their shopping in store, 41 percent online, said the retail group. The biggest increase in potential shoppers is expected to be on Thanksgiving, either from customers heading to stores or shopping from phones “while watching football,” said Prosper Executive Vice President-Strategy Phil Rist. Shopping motivators for the Thanksgiving weekend are good deals (65 percent), tradition (28 percent), timing (22 percent) and group activity (17 percent), said the report. Some 26 percent of people who don’t plan to shop that weekend said a sale or discount on an item they want could change their minds. The survey of 7,917 adult consumers was done Oct. 31-Nov. 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.
A dozen 4K Black Friday TV specials remained at Best Buy Friday. Deal-priced models included a 43-inch Samsung NU6900 series ($277 from $379) set, a $599 Samsung 65-inch TV ($599 from $799), a 43-inch LG from the UK6090 series ($269 from $399), a 55-inch LG ($399 from $549) and two Sony TV’s in the X850F series: a 65-inch ($999 from $1,399) and a 75-incher ($1,799 from $2,299).
Thanksgiving was the most mobile of the high-profile shopping days over the past week, blogged comScore Thursday. Mobile shopping’s share of total digital commerce reached 40 percent on Thanksgiving, continuing a trend from last year, wrote analyst Ian Essling, while in-store traffic on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was down slightly from last year. Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday all posted 28 percent or higher digital commerce spending vs. 2017, Essling said. Total digital commerce spending grew 38 percent on Thanksgiving to $3.4 billion, 36 percent on Black Friday to $4.8 billion and 28 percent on Cyber Monday to $6 billion. Eighty-one percent of all transactions during the week, and 90 percent of those from computers, had free shipping. Consumers visited more retail sites sooner and spent at a faster rate than in previous years, said the analyst. Total e-commerce visits grew 15 percent on Thanksgiving, 13 percent on Black Friday and 11 percent on Cyber Monday. A Monday survey showed 18 percent of online buyers bought an item from Amazon’s “Black Friday Deals Week” that they had originally intended to make later, which Essling said illustrated the power of early promotions.
CE makers not known for competitive discounting showed up on Black Friday, hoping to win consumer dollars on the biggest tech discount day of the year. Sonos took $25 off its latest speaker, the Alexa-enabled Sonos One, a price matched at Best Buy. Sonos also skimmed $50 off the popular Beam sound bar launched last summer to bring it to $350. It lopped $100 of the Connect Amp, soon to be replaced in the line, and $100 off its Sub wireless subwoofer. Bose trumpeted savings of up to 50 percent on its website for limited quantities of select items, including $50 off the SoundSport in-ear headphones (to $50) for Apple devices, $50 off the QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones to $350 and $50 off the Solo 5 TV sound system to $200. Apple, which in the past has limited promotions to Black Friday only, stretched this year’s offers through Monday. It’s giving away a $50 Apple Store gift card with the purchase of select SIM-free iPhones, a $100 store card with certain iPads, a $200 card with an iMac buy, and $50 with the purchase of an Apple Watch, HomePod or select Beats headphones. Buying an Apple TV nets shoppers a $25 Apple Store card, said the website.
BJ’s Wholesale Club had strong Q3 growth in the TV category resulting from the investments it made earlier this year on “improved TV signals to our clubs” that enable them to “better display” 4K TVs, said CEO Christopher Baldwin on a Tuesday earnings call. Clubs with the improved signals had double-digit same-store sales increases in the TV category during the quarter, he said: “This bodes well for our Black Friday performance in TVs as well as other electronics categories. We're accelerating our assortment work in categories outside of general merchandise for the first time.”
Young adults likely will spend more this holiday season than last, compared with consumers overall, reported the National Retail Federation Wednesday. NRF canvassed 7,500 consumers in early November and found 77 percent plan to spend about the same on holiday gifts this year as they did in 2017, it said. By comparison, 43 percent of young adults ages 18-24 and 38 percent of those 25-34 said they'll spend more, it said. Only 9 percent of consumers 65 and older are planning to spend more, it said: “This holiday season retailers will experience the growing purchasing power of Gen Z and millennials. Whether they are still in college or raising children, these consumer groups embrace the tradition of prior generations and take full advantage of Thanksgiving weekend deals both online and in stores.”
An estimated 164 million consumers will shop brick-and-mortar and online stores between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, said the National Retail Federation Friday. NRF canvassed 7,500 consumers Oct. 29 through Nov. 7 and found Black Friday will remain the busiest day of the long weekend, with 71 percent planning to shop, but only 21 percent plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day. Cyber Monday will be the second busiest day, with 46 percent planning to shop. Of those planning to shop on one or more days of the long weekend, 65 percent said they will do so to take advantage of deals and promotions.
Credit comparison service company Cardrates.com offered safe shopping tips for Black Friday. Consumers should protect personal and financial data by using a credit card with $0 fraud protection; use an online payment service such as PayPal to avoid giving financial information to retailers; use a virtual credit card number to protect account information; choose a card with return protection; set up credit card alerts through their online banking or mobile app; and notify the card issuer immediately if they spot an unauthorized transaction, said Credit Strategist Brittney Mayer Friday. CTA had said (see 1810160044) 58 percent of U.S. shoppers plan to make a purchase with a mobile device this holiday season, 52 percent plan to buy online and 77 percent will shop in stores.