20 October 2020
Online shopping and e-commerce have been chipping away at brick-and-mortar retailers over the years and the combination of the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 holiday season may prove to be a knockout blow.
State of play: Anxious consumers say financial concerns and health worries will push them to spend less money this year and to do more of their limited spending online.
Driving the news: Deloitte's latest global survey of consumers finds shoppers plan to spend an average of $1,387 per household, down 7% from 2019.
- With nearly one third (29%) of respondents saying that their household’s financial situation is worse this year than last, 38% of consumers say they plan to spend less on the holidays, the most since the Great Recession.
By the numbers: Almost 51% of holiday shoppers feel anxious about shopping in-store, and 64% of holiday budgets are expected to be spent online.
- Spending is expected to shift to non-gift purchases for celebrations at home (up 12% from 2019), and travel is expected to decline 34% year over year.
- The average shopping window is expected to be 1.5 weeks shorter this year.
On the other side: Amazon's Prime Day — the unofficial start of the 2020 holiday shopping season — delivered a 71% increase in spending from U.S. shoppers over 2019's July event and a 66% increase globally, according to Salesforce data.
- Traffic to digital sites increased by 40%, even eclipsing 2019's Black Friday (9% growth) and Cyber Monday (11% growth) digital traffic.
While the rising tide of Prime Day has lifted all retail boars in the past, this year brick-and-mortar firms haven't seen nearly the same increase.
- According to data from foot-traffic tracking firm Placer.ai, Whole Foods saw visits fall 32.1%, while Target, Walmart and Best Buy were down 15.9%, 19.1%, and 11.6%, respectively, compared to July 2019.
What's next: A new poll from Alignable finds 45% of consumers shifted from local purchasing to online shopping when their COVID fears were greatest and many have not gone back.
- More than half (52%) say they don’t expect to change their current shopping habits for the holiday season.
- Another 16% plan to increase their spending at national, online retailers instead of shopping locally.
The bottom line: Alignable survey analysts note, "Given this data, there's a chance some Main St. retailers will completely miss out on much of the holiday shopping season — devastating news for many who are already in jeopardy of shutting down for good."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.