With Black Friday around the corner and consumers expected to do much of their holiday shopping away from stores, Amazon is sitting pretty.
The e-retailer has already had a major impact on the season. Its Prime Day event, along with other October sales, helped “jumpstart the holiday shopping season,” according to a pre-Thanksgiving report from Deloitte. Overall in October, retail spending rose 3.5% year over year, driven by 6% increase during Oct. 11-17, which featured several holiday promotions, according to the report.
But with a dearth of stores compared to other retailers (578, with most of those within its Whole Foods grocery chain) and with time running out, Amazon now may be at something of a disadvantage. Most retailers are bracing for pandemic-induced disruption during the holiday period, including light store traffic or even lockdowns, as well as freight surcharges, small package delivery delays and capacity constraints, according to a Monday client note from Telsey Advisory Group.
Source: Retail Dive