🛍 Cyber Monday is the New Black Friday

In today’s email:

• Holiday Shopping Updates: Black Friday vs Cyber Monday

• New Concept Store: The King of Sneakers Arrives in Harlem

• TL;DR: Top Weekly Reads for your Enjoyment.Subscribe now

It’s Cyber Monday!

Break out your wallet, because the deals are here!

Black Friday has historically been the day of big sales. Over the past several years, Black Friday has turned into a week of deals, from the week of Thanksgiving extending into Cyber Monday.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday 

Which spending holiday produces the most sales?

Cyber Monday has outperformed Black Friday since 2018, making it the king of retail shopping holidays. The nearly week long shopping event will gross over $20B, making retailers the true winner! 

What about inflation?

This year, the fear was whether inflation and fear of a recession would slow down shopping. It did not.

U.S. shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online this Black Friday, up 2.3% from the previous year. It is expected that e-commerce sales will surpass $11B on Cyber Monday. 

Are people flocking to retail stores?

It’s too early to tell, however, retail foot traffic suggests that long lines and crowds of people hitting the Black Friday sales is a thing of the past.

Economic Red Flag?

On the surface it’s a great sign that people are spending cash. The one potential caveat is the emergence of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). Sounds great, right? Similar to a credit card, you can have something today for free and worry about paying for it later. The usage of BNPL this past week spiked 78% when compared to the week before!

With new alternatives for people to buy now, pay later, time will tell whether or not people will actually be able to pay for their purchases.

👟 Nike Goes DTC in Harlem

Last month, Nike opened Nike Unite Harlem in NYC. This new retail concept store is the third Nike Unite store in the city, with other locations in the North Bronx and East New York. 

The Nike Unite stores are focused on local partnerships and telling the story of the communities where they are located. 

Nike Unite stores are also located in Germany, China, and South Korea. 

Whats the strategy?

This is all part of Nike’s grand plan to shift from a wholesale distribution model to direct to consumer (DTC) , opening 200 DTC retail stores in the US and abroad.

So far, Nike has opened four retail concept stores in addition to Unite:

• Nike Live - digitally enabled, small-format boutique showcasing popular products

• Nike Style - a content studio allowing creators and customers to create custom content

• House of Innovation - high-end brand showroom showcasing product innovation

• Nike Rise - high-tech, personalized, data driven experiential retail 

Our take: Nike has been criticized for their DTC strategy, but they have increased DTC sales to $17B and almost 40% of revenue in the last several years! Just 5 years ago, DTC sales were around $9B and 26% of revenue.

Nike has a rabid fan base and these stores are smartly designed to engage with the customers and integrate the physical and digital spaces.

TL;DR

Walmart wins Black Friday

City Winery opens in NYC Grand Central Terminal

Cannabis dispensaries boost property values  

Herschel Supply opens its first ever retail store in NYC

Goldman Sachs predicts the US will escape recession

Jack in the Box is in expansion mode!

That’s it for today!

🍻 Cheers to buying more things we don’t need this Cyber Monday!

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