With the holiday shopping season winding down, retailers can now begin to take a look back and evaluate their busiest time of the year.
During the past five weeks, foot traffic at Crossgates Mall has been heavy, parking lots jammed, and the lines have been long as shoppers have been packing into the mall and other area retailers to finish up their holiday shopping.
Sara Nieves, marketing director at Crossgates, said she was very pleased with the 2006 shopping season.
It went extremely well, she said.
Nieves said mall staff has recently begun to speak with retailers to see how their season went, and though they have only spoken with a handful of stores, she said the input has been pretty positive.
Nieves said merchants have been complimentary of the mall for its role in keeping foot traffic flowing into their stores each day, and retailers have also reported that extended hours have gone a long way in increasing traffic.
`We do understand this holiday season has proven to be a successful season at Crossgates Mall,` said Nieves.
According to the Retail Council of New York State, Crossgates wasn’t the only place to see a strong holiday shopping season. The council’s Holiday Sales Watch, conducted Dec. 11 and 12, gauged retailers’ perception of sales activity since the Black Friday weekend. At that time, 59 percent of merchants surveyed indicated they were pleased with their sales, while 62 percent described their sales as better than or similar to the same period in 2005.
`Depending on the retailer, 10 to 40 percent of profits are based on what happens during the holiday season,` said Rebecca Marion, spokeswoman for the council.
And though Christmas has passed, many retailers still rely on the post-holiday shoppers to boost their numbers.
Gift cards, returns and after-Christmas sales keep the people flowing into the mall. Nieves said the season usually begins to slow down significantly in the second or third week of January.
The Retail Council’s survey indicated that about 60 percent of merchants said that after-Christmas shopping will play a role in the success of their holiday season.
Retailers have reported to the council that due to mild weather statewide, sale of cold-weather apparel, such as coats and gloves, has suffered, while consumer-electronics items, including televisions and digital cameras, continue to be the top sellers.
`Super Saturday,` the last Saturday to shop before Christmas, was expected to be the busiest nationwide, but the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), conducted by ShopperTrak RCT Corporation, reported that it fell just short of Black Friday.
The NRSE reported that preliminary sales estimates on Saturday totaled $8.72 billion, compared to Black Friday’s `very healthy` $8.96 billion. However, the NRSE showed that the combined total for the Friday and Saturday before Christmas was $16.28 billion, `indicating a very successful close to the holiday shopping season.`
`While it appears ‘Super Saturday’ finished second to Black Friday this year, the total dollars spent indicate a very strong close to the holiday shopping season,` said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. `It’s possible that consumers may have responded to the anticipated large crowds on ‘Super Saturday’ and pushed to get their shopping done earlier in the week, or simply taken pains to avoid crowded malls altogether. Nevertheless, retailers should be very pleased with this last-minute boost.“
