HOME DEPOT SEES BIG GAINS IN 3RD QUARTER GOING INTO HOLIDAY SALES

The Home Depot posted one of the biggest retail jumps post-Halloween among US retailers, seeing online visits increase 17.4% and daily visits to HomeDepot.com over 20 million in the first week of November. The Home Depot is also poised to increase mobile traffic to 53% over the 2015 holiday season.

Online sales increased 17% during the third quarter and US same-store comps grew 5.9%. Significantly, over 40% of online orders placed were items picked up in the store, driving their omnichannel success.

For the first 9 months of the year, sales were $72.39 billion, up 7.2% from last year. The Home Depot attributes the growth to an increase in the number of people who made purchases in its stores and the amount of spend per customer transaction. The company expects its 2016 year to end with increases of 6.3%.

One thing to watch as the holiday season continues – last year Q4 numbers were very high due to prolonged warm weather, up 8.9% over 2014, making it harder for Home Depot to beat same store sales this year.

Sources: Internet Retailer, CNBC

Q3 Earnings may be dim for some retailers, but the nrf states holiday shoppers are hitting the stores early this year

The National Retail Federation’s Consumer Holiday Spending Survey shows that 56.6% of holiday shoppers already started shopping by early November, up from 54.4% in 2014. 60% of shoppers still plan to purchase apparel or accessories, 46.2% will buy books/CDs/video games, 41.2% will buy toys and 21.8% will purchase jewelry. Over 50% of those surveyed felt that retailer promotions offered so far have been excellent or good.

“Thanksgiving weekend shopping has evolved tremendously over the past few years and can no longer be seen as the ‘start’ of the holiday season, though there’s no question it’s still important to millions of holiday shoppers and retailers of all shapes and sizes,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay. “There is a real sea change happening in retail when it comes to the how, when, where, and why of holiday shopping. Consumers today are looking for great prices and value-add promotions earlier than ever before, and retailers have answered these demands in several different ways already this holiday season.”

Many retailers are hopeful this trend will result in positive earnings results in Q4. Q3 earnings results for several retailers were lower than expected. Macy’s reported earnings of 56 cents per share, down from 61 cents a year ago. Revenue fell to $5.87 billion from $6.2 billion in 2014, the third-straight quarter of declining sales. Dillard’s and Nordstrom also experienced lower than expected results. For Dillard’s, weaker performing categories were men’s apparel, accessories and home, as they reported a 4% decrease in comp stores. Nordstrom sales grew in the third quarter but comp store sales only rose .9% missing the forecast of 3.6%. JC Penney, however, reported higher than expected results for Q3, stating that Sephora and home goods helped them be successful.

Sources: Chain Store Age, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider