Well, this year with inflation and rising interest rates
, many Americans say that they have smaller budgets for
holiday shopping. So here today to help us stretch
our dollar while shopping is Adam Davis, managing director
at Wells Fargo Retail Finance. Adam, welcome.
Thank you. How aware are retailers that Americans might
be working with smaller budgets this year? So the
the retailers are keenly aware of the health of the
consumer, but more specifically their consumer. And so
I think that's why you've seen holiday sales pull forward
um from, you know, it's not a new
trend, but it's something that we've seen over the
last few years this year, in particular, starting
kind of September, October and then the lines have
blurred quite a bit as it relates to Black Friday
, Cyber Monday and kind of where you can get
the best deals. What should shoppers be doing today
to make sure that they get the best deals on
their must haves. So they should definitely be researching
their favorite brands, retailers um signing up for newsletters
also investigating if, if, if they were to
use a credit card for holiday, purchasing a lot
of credit cards, ultimately you know, provide um
exclusive discounts, uh promotional um items as it relates
to, you know, uh extra points. And
so it's, it's a matter of doing some research
ahead of time. Um You know, a lot
of retailers have already announced their Black Friday sales to
try to capture as much as possible even this week
. Are there better deals on some tech items than
others during the holidays? Some of these bigger ticket
items. So historically, there's always been, you
know, a lot of um great bargains, door
busters as it relates to electronics. But we've seen
with even the apparel, there's been some, some
steep discount. So it's, it's going to be
a promotional uh environment and I think that's where,
you know, the the consumer can kind of seek
out the steels. I think the flip side is
, you know, there's going to be door busters
over the coming days. But what is the cadence
of discounting post cyber Monday? What about really beyond
some of these electronics? Are there items in other
categories that retailers are seriously marking down? Yeah,
so, you know, you can go sector by
sector, you know, the biggest promotional categories are
gonna be apparel, electronics, uh toys and jewelry
. Um But we're seeing, you know, home
furnishings is, is another kind of important one.
And so it's, it's kind of case by case
. So I wouldn't necessarily wait until the week of
Christmas. Um because you, you might actually miss
out this year. In particular, the retailers have
reduced inventory levels in anticipation of sales expectations. And
so, although they'll continue to be promotional to move
through the inventory, you know, they're not necessarily
forced um to, to heavy, you know,
to be heavily discounting. Um and they, and
they might just kind of follow suit with some of
their biggest competitors versus leading the charge with, you
know, some Buster type um discount. Is it
worth waiting longer, let's say to try to hold
out maybe for even a better deal or that special
item. So if you have flexibility, you can
absolutely wait because the, the sooner you get to
, you know, the big holidays, you know
, there will still be some, some bargains and
similar to Thanksgiving, you're gonna have some leftovers.
Um, it's a question of where the inventory levels
are. And so if you're flexible, that's one
way of doing it. The concern being if you're
looking for a very specific sweater in a size,
it might be slightly picked over the other challenge if
you wait too long is going up against shipping deadlines
. If you're shopping online, what other things,
Adam should our viewers remember before heading out to stores
? Yeah, I mean, look, uh,
do do as much research as you can ahead of
time. Um, enjoy it. Um, put
on some Christmas carols. Um, and, and
really look for as many bargains as, as,
as possible, you know, the retailers are motivated
to drive traffic given the consumer headwinds. And so
you'll see, see, um a number of promotions
and maybe it's not across the board 20 40% across
the entire store. But there's gonna be specific,
uh, specific items that you can definitely take advantage
of. All right, Adam Davis, managing director
at Wells Fargo Retail Finance. Adam. Thank you
. Great tips.