Retailers Can No Longer Bank On Black Friday

It wasn’t so long ago that retailers felt obligated to open early on the purported busiest shopping day of the year, and customers responded by lining up out their doors. But Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. That’s one key takeaway from the second annual JDA Consumer Survey. Responding to a survey polling 1,000 shoppers, 47% said that they plan to skip 2016’s Black Friday (or Cyber Monday), and 73% prefer to do their shopping outside of the holiday season during newer e-commerce deal days like Amazon Prime Day. Even some of those who went out to the stores for deals last year are sitting out Black Friday this year, with 34% indicating a change in behavior. These responses anticipate a further drop in Black Friday shopping that will continue the trend established last year when reports indicated a significant year-over-year drop in brick-and-mortar retail sales. Read more at Forbes.