Nov. 22 -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co. will mark Thanksgiving today with online promotions aimed at jumpstarting the holiday sales season. The Web sites are unlikely to provide the boost they did last year.
Internet sales are poised to slow with the rest of holiday spending this year as consumers suffer from higher food and fuel costs and the worst housing slump since 1991.
Spending through Web sites, which makes up more than 3 percent of all retail sales, will climb 20 percent to $29.5 billion in November and December, according to ComScore Inc., an online research firm. That's less than the 26 percent growth in online sales during last year's holiday season.
The end-of-the-year selling period, which accelerates in the U.S. after Thanksgiving, is forecast by analysts to increase at the slowest pace in five years.
``There's a natural terminal velocity'' for online shopping, said Michael Moriarty, partner at A.T. Kearney Inc., a Chicago-based consulting firm. ``People still like going into stores, they still like shopping, they still like bringing the stuff home.''
Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving when retailers' ledgers are said to turn profitable, or in the black -- is among the biggest shopping days of the year and has traditionally marked the start of the holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the U.S.
Busiest Web Day
The busiest day for online shopping won't come until more than two weeks later, on Dec. 10, according to MasterCard Inc.'s Holiday Shopping Insights Report.
That Monday, almost three-quarters of U.S. retailers have online promotions planned to lure shoppers returning to work. That's twice the online promotions as two years ago, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington.
``They're pushing people to go on line because it's so much cheaper for them to conduct their business,'' said Neal Rapoport, founder of DealTaker.com, which tracks store promotions.
Internet sales climbed 17 percent in the first 18 days of November from a year ago, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said. Retailers this year are using their Web sites more to drive traffic into stores than fuel sales online, said Moriarty at A.T. Kearney.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart will discount twice as many items on its Web site as last year and offer online-only specials on Thanksgiving, spokesman Ravi Jariwala said in an e- mail. HSN.com, Adidas AG, Barnes & Noble Inc. plan online-only specials. Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minnesota, added customer product reviews to its Web site and launched a Spanish site last week.
Retailers' Strategy
``It used to be, `I'm going to give you a promotion for something you buy on line,''' said Sherif Mityas, also a partner at A.T. Kearney. ``Now it's `I'm giving you insight for when you come into the store, you know more than when you just walked in off the street.'''
Total retail sales in November and December will advance 2.5 percent over last year, the slowest in three years, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers, which represents mall owners.
The National Retail Federation and TNS Retail Forward both anticipate the smallest holiday sales gain in five years as consumers cope with higher food and gasoline prices. The NRF includes purchases in November and December in its forecast. TNS uses sales during October, November and December.
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