What a shorter holiday shopping season means for consumers and retailers

Canadians waiting for Black Friday to kick-start their holiday shopping have less time to pick up gifts.
There are five fewer days between Black Friday on Nov. 29 and Christmas Eve because U.S. Thanksgiving is later this year.
The shortened shopping period will shift how retailers market around the season and amp up the pressure consumers feel to make their holiday purchases sooner rather than later, experts say.
“With five fewer days between Black Friday and Christmas this year, we can expect to see retailers doing everything they can to get consumers in stores earlier than usual,” said Tandy Thomas, the E. Marie Shantz fellow of marketing at Queen’s University, in an email.
“That means, pre-Black Friday sales are likely to start even sooner than in prior years as retailers try to push traffic to their stores.”
Before Halloween even arrived, Costco, Dollarama and Winners were stocking holiday merchandise and as jack-o-lanterns were being taken to the curb, some retailers had already released Black Friday flyers or even begun a month-long span of promotions.
“The biggest thing that we’re seeing this year … is the shift in the timing of Black Friday, and every retailer in the country is obviously dealing with that,” TJ Flood, president of Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.’s retail business, said on the company’s latest earnings call.
“That just creates an environment where we’ve got to think through our marketing campaigns and the lead up to Black Friday and then also the last sprint between Black Friday and Christmas, so we’re being very, very aggressive in recognizing that.”
The attitude is similar at Spin Master Corp., the Toronto-based toymaker behind Ms. Rachel, Hatchimals and Paw Patrol products.
The holidays tend to be the company’s busy season but with the U.S. election in early November and Black Friday at the end of the month, it pushed some of its marketing efforts later “to focus on when consumer intent is at its highest point within that window,” CEO Max Rangel said on his company’s earnings call.
When the Retail Council of Canada and Leger surveyed 2,510 people about holiday shopping over the summer and fall, 26 per cent said they wouldn’t start spending on the occasion until Black Friday or sometime after.
Even shoppers who began earlier in the year put plenty of importance on Black Friday. The council found Black Friday remains the top holiday shopping day for Canadians, with 84 per cent deeming it significant in terms of spending, followed by Cyber Monday/Week at 65 per cent.
Yet Santo Ligotti, vice-president of marketing and member services for the Retail Council of Canada, argued timing likely won’t weigh on retailers much.
“When this holiday is later, I don’t think it impacts them as much because people are shopping earlier and the retailers are giving discounts and value throughout the year,” he said.
Some 12 per cent of the people the retail council surveyed planned to begin holiday shopping in October but 18 per cent wanted to wait to start in mid-to-early November. Eleven per cent thought they would begin grabbing holiday items during the later stretch of the month.
Ligotti said such numbers reflect some retailers’ predilection for launching sales weeks before Black Friday, which he thinks has lost some of its lustre.
“In 2023, the busiest shopping day was the day before Christmas, so I’m not sure if Black Friday is what it used to be in terms of a do-or-die for retailers,” he said.
But the day isn’t insignificant either.
The average respondent to the council’s survey said they expected to spend $972 on holiday shopping, up $73 or eight per cent, from last year. Forty per cent of that spending would happen on Black Friday and 36 per cent during Cyber Monday/Week.
“From the consumer side, the biggest risk with fewer shopping days between Black Friday and Christmas is that they are rushed,” Queen’s University’s Thomas said.
“With rushing comes poorer decision making and a higher likelihood of overspending or buying unnecessary items.”
However, Liza Amlani, co-founder of the Retail Strategy Group, felt shoppers “will have more choice than ever” and the “shortened golden period won’t impact customer.”
But she expected underperforming retailers to trot out the shortened shopping period as an “excuse … when they don’t meet their sales targets.”
“Retailers plan their assortments a year in advance so having five fewer days to sell products between Black Friday and Christmas is not new news (for them),” said Amlani.
“Yet the retailers will still panic during holiday selling and will blame this shorter period for the lack of sales.”