U.S. Retailers Hoping Black Friday Sales Fuel Strong Holiday Shopping Season

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November 25, 2010 There's even bigger oil trouble in The Gulf It's not another oil spill. It's worse. Hugo Chavez has quietly begun making good on his threat to cut the U.S. out of $44 trillion worth of Gulf crude... But as Americans feel the pinch, a handful of domestic companies will end up soaring into uncharted profit territory. Only one man knows the whole story: Energy insider Dr. Kent Moors. His FREE Special Presentation on how Chavez's anti-American plan could pay you as much as 2,505% in just 13 months. Just go here. U.S. Retailers Hoping Black Friday Sales, Smartphone Apps Fuel Strong Holiday Shopping Season [Editor's Note: We want to hear from you! For those consumers who took part in this year's Black Friday holiday shopping frenzy, send your experiences, comments and questions to our Money Morning Question of the Week: "What's Your Black Friday Holiday Shopping Strategy?" Click here or send an e-mail to mailbag@moneymappress.com. ] By Kerri Shannon, Associate Editor, Money Morning Another Black Friday. Another holiday shopping season. But a whole new strategy for U.S. retailers. As the Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday, today marks the "official" kickoff of the 2010 holiday shopping season. Usually referred to as "Black Friday," today is the day when U.S. retailers traditionally pull out all the stops in an effort to pull as much money as possible out of the wallets and purses of U.S. consumers. But after two of the most painful holiday shopping seasons in memory, U.S. retailers aren't just falling back on the same old tired bag of tricks - they're aiming to "swarm" shoppers into submission with striking early-bird store schedules, attention-grabbing smartphone technologies and intriguging attempts to combine the convenience of online shopping with the sensorial allure of brick-and-mortar browsing. "Retailers are trying to be in front of customers 24/7," said Noam Paransky, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon Associates. "It's exploding this year." A Shopping Season Forecast The National Retail Federation has predicted holiday sales - with today (Friday) as the starting point - will hit $447.1 billion during this year's shopping season, a 2.3% increase from last year. That's a bit below the average annual increase of 2.5% for the past decade, but it's still a step in the right direction: Holiday sales increased a minuscule 0.4% last year and actually plunged 3.9% in 2008 - thanks to a financial crisis that some at the time feared would turn into a Great Depression II. "Consumers have endured two years of economic body blows, but have been slowly picking themselves off the mat since last year, despite the employment woes," Craig Johnson, president of retail consultancy firm Customer Growth Partners, told CNNMoney. Retail sales have shown signs of life of late: Monthly results have increased in four of the last five months, while the closely watched same-store-sales results have risen for 14 consecutive months, with the biggest shopping months of the year yet to be tallied. November and December provide as much as 50% of some retailers' yearly profit and sales. Some stores have hired temporary help to better serve the holiday rush, while others are offering employee incentives for extended working hours. "What retailers have learned from the difficulties [of the last two years] is the need to be meaner, leaner, and also, to get more out of the help that they already have,'' Mike Tesler, a partner with the Norwell, Mass., consulting firm Retail Concepts, told The Boston Globe. Understanding that there's a limit to the total amount consumers will spend - and wanting to lure cost-conscious consumers away from competitors - discount and big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 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Facebook Twitter Money Morning Quote of the Day: "Commodities tend to zig when the equity markets zag." -Investing guru Jim Rogers Top Stories November 24, 2010 China Banks Rein in Lending but Economy's Growth Prospects Remain Strong November 24, 2010 We Want to Hear From You: What's Your Black Friday Holiday Shopping Strategy? 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