Analyst predicts Busy Shopping Day today

Retail analysts predict stores will be busy today. Foot traffic is expected to be high as many people are not working today, giving them an extra day to take advantage of post-Christmas deals. Bill Martin is the Founder of ShopperTrak. He says gift cards will drive a lot of that traffic. “We expect that about $54 billion in gifts cards were sold and the retailers will promote heavily trying to bring those people who received the gift cards back into the store over this next week.” It is very important that those gift cards come back into stores, continues Martin. “The reason they want those gift cards to come in is because they cannot recognize the revenue until those cards are redeemed, so a lot of effort will go around trying to get those cards back in the stores.” He says consumers are feeling good about where they are as the year ends. “Retailers are excited about that because not only do they see elevated growth during the Christmas holiday, but they expect that it will carry forward into the first quarter and that is what retailers are really interested in.” Others will head to the store to either return or exchange gifts today.