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It may be a month before Halloween, but Christmas decorations have already gone up at Walmart.
On Thursday, Walmart (WMT) announced that it will begin preparing its shops and website for the holiday shopping season as early as next month.
The store announced it will begin giving deeper discounts on popular gift categories including toys, home decor, electronics, and cosmetic products in October, when more than half of its consumers make their holiday shopping plans.
Walmart also announced that it has increased inventory of items that it anticipates will sell well during the holiday season. These items include televisions, tablets, wireless headphones and phones, robotic vacuum cleaners, and furniture.
"Customers' disposable income is constantly tight, thus providing excellent value is a primary priority for us. They know they can count on us to provide low prices on necessities year-round, and we want to make it simple for them to find the same value in the midst of the frenzied holiday shopping that has begun earlier than ever before "executive vice president and chief eCommerce officer for Walmart U.S., Tom Ward, said in an interview.
Ward would not elaborate on the depth of Walmart's discounts this year or how they stack up against those of the previous year.
To accommodate this year's early gift shoppers, Walmart and the Walmart+ subscription service stated they would extend the return policy.
Walmart announced that customers have until January 31, 2023, to return items bought on or after October 1. It also stated that shoppers could return their purchases in a number of different ways, including at the register, at the curbside of Walmart stores, and for Walmart+ members, at their own homes.
Walmart is often seen as a barometer for the retail industry, but it is too soon to tell if the company's decision to begin its holiday push earlier than normal would cause other stores to do the same.
GlobalData Retail's managing director and retail analyst Neil Saunders thinks so.
However, as Saunders points out, "it won't be the only one doing so," since Amazon is also likely to hold a deal day in late October, and other stores will follow suit with their own set of discounts and sales.
He continued, however, by saying that Walmart is "smart to hit the button on its holiday efforts at an early time."
"Since household incomes are tight, shoppers will begin their holiday preparations earlier than usual this year. Especially so among financially strapped shoppers, an audience Walmart dominates "His words.
However, merchants' best sales time of the year traditionally begins in earnest on Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, and all these early bargains may fail to spark a shopping frenzy.
Across the country, families are struggling to make ends meet as persistently high inflation eats away at their budgets and savings.
Retail sales during the crucial months leading up to the end of the year (November, December, and January, when Christmas gift cards are often redeemed) are expected to rise by 4-6%, according to Deloitte, which is significantly lower than the 15.1% growth seen during the same period in 2017.
Families will likely still make holiday purchases, but they may limit the number of people they give presents to this year.
Overall, sales growth will still occur, but it won't be as significant as last year, according to Rod Sides, vice chair at Deloitte and head of the firm's US retail and distribution practice. In the event that shoppers spend less on gifts, there will be more Christmas sales than ever before.
