Cheap prices give Amazon a boost

Amazon.com is calling this holiday season its “best ever,” saying it saw a 17% increase in orders on its busiest day — a rare piece of good news in a season that has been far from merry for most retailers, including online businesses.

Amazon customers ordered more than 6.3 million items on Dec. 15, compared with roughly 5.4 million on its peak day last year, the company said. It shipped more than 5.6 million products on its best day, a 44% surge over 2007, when it shipped about 3.9 million on its busiest day.

Amazon’s best-sellers included the Nintendo Wii game console, Samsung’s 52-inch LCD HDTV and Apple Inc.’s iPod touch.
Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said Amazon’s experience shows the current economy is favoring discount retailers, both online and offline.

Figures show how deeply retailers have been hit

Some shops will definitely have to replace Boxing week sales with Closing Down sales like this one.

Figures in the US out today show just how badly retailers have been hit over Christmas.

Sales at specialty apparel retailers like Gap Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch Co fell 19.7 percent this year, SpendingPulse said. When factoring in department store results, sales fell about 20 percent, McNamara said.

Women’s apparel sales fell 22.7 percent; men’s clothing sales were off 14.3 percent, and footwear sales fell 13.5 percent, SpendingPulse said.

This year, the higher the price, the more consumers did without, SpendingPulse said. Sales at specialty electronics and appliance chains such as Best Buy Co Inc fell 26.7 percent, it said.

Luxury sales, which include sales at high-end department stores, leather goods boutiques, pricier jewelry stores and restaurants, fell 34.5 percent, SpendingPulse said. Excluding jewelry, sales fell 21.2 percent.

Thanks for the present darlin - but I need the money

So much for the Christmas spirit.

The Dominion Post reports that online auction sites were flooded with new goods once people opened theior presents. “Christmas lunch was yet to settle when hundreds of members of auction site Trade Me listed items such as earrings, DVDs, digital photo frames and cosmetics on the website, some complete with photos of the items and comments such as “Unwanted Christmas gift, just not my kinda thing”.

Jobs go, retail moves to 50% off

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose last week to a 26-year high, indicating employers are stepping up job cuts as the recession deepens, according to reports today.

Meanwhile a trip up and down the main retail outlets have shown shops are now so desperate after a terrible Christmas that they are discounting at 50% off - even major retailers.

Make or break week- worst for 40 years

It’s a make or break week for retailers. After a dismal Christmas, some will rely on massive Boxing Day sales to generate much-needed hard cash to pay bills.

But crazy discounting on top of pre-Christmas discounts means the margins are so low, it won’t help the bottom line and some businesses will fail.
The Washington Times reports that recession worries have put a monumental chill on holiday sales, which are on track to be the worst in at least four decades raising the possibility of many retail bankruptcies next year.

The slump comes as the nasty turn in the economy continued to eat away at consumer wealth and confidence, with home sales hitting a 17-year low last month and home prices falling at the fastest rate in at least 40 years. The rapid decline of home values - the largest source of wealth for most consumers - is contributing to the funk that is sinking holiday sales.

Christmas retail a disaster

As Christmas shopping froze, shops like this one kept changing the discount eventually pasting over the older ones with 50% off. Watch for 70% on Boxing Day.
U.S. holiday sales will fall more than forecast after recession fears kept shoppers from spending in the last weekend before Christmas according to a US retail group.

Last weekend had the lowest U.S. shopper turnout in at least six years.