Low unemployment rates and high consumer confidence is likely to have contributed to the increase in shopping activity this holiday season. Meanwhile, traffic declines in brick-and-mortar stores continued through Cyber Monday as well.
All major retailers who have made reasonable investments to upgrade their digital channels seem to have benefited during the three shopping days, though Amazon (AMZN) continues to be a dominant player, according to a report by Edison Trends.
This comes on the heels of a 24% rise in Black Friday online sales to $6.22bn.
Meanwhile, the challenge for retailers for the rest of the holiday season would be clearing inventories without resorting to discounts that hurt margins. Retail analysts will be closely tracking the discounts offered by various retailers to make a rough sketch of their warehouse health.
Retail stocks, which have been hit hard by lackluster earnings a month ago, are slowly recovering, riding on the record-breaking earnings season. While Gap (GAP) and Macy’s (M) have gained about 2% since Friday, Best Buy (BBY) has jumped over 4%.