Sam's Club has joined rival retailers in jumping into the Christmas shopping season earlier than ever.
Walmart Inc.'s members-only warehouse division said Friday that it is starting its Christmas season "shopping events" earlier than usual because its members said in a recent survey that they plan to shop earlier. These events will be spread over five weekends from late this month through early December.
Bentonville-based Walmart hasn't yet said what it plans for Christmas sales and Black Friday events.
Walmart rival Target Corp. said Sept. 29 that its annual "Deal Days" would start Sunday and end today. Target's promotional prices are available online, in its mobile app and, for the first time, in its more than 1,900 stores.
E-commerce behemoth Amazon.com said Oct. 4 that its "Black Friday-worthy" deals were already available on its website and app, with steep discounts on merchandise across all categories. New deals will be added daily, the company said.
While Christmas sales and events have crept up earlier each year as retailers vie for shoppers -- and their dollars -- industry experts say several factors will make this a most unusual shopping season.
Dinesh Gauri, professor and chair of the marketing department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said Monday that this season will be "a perfect storm" for retail.
Demand will be high and merchandise will be in limited supply, Gauri said.
Since consumers did not do a lot of shopping last year, there's pent-up demand, Gauri said. And with ongoing snags in the supply chain, he said, retailers will have to struggle to keep all the items that consumers need in stock.
Most retailers aren't yet advertising specific deals, which Gauri said is smart because if a particular item sold out too soon, "they would be sort of in a fix as to what to do."
Retailers will have to strike a balance, Gauri said, between how much they can promote an item and how many units they actually have on hand.
By starting promotions early and spreading them out over several months, he said, retailers "are trying to tell people they should not be doing last-minute holiday shopping this year."
"As a consumer, I'd like to do my shopping as soon as I can," Gauri said.
Carol Spieckerman, retail consultant and president of Spieckerman Retail, said all these circumstances justify the early promotions this year.
"Incentivising shoppers to shop early -- and thereby spread out demand -- makes sense as supply chain snafus promise to continue throughout the holiday shopping season," she said.
"Hot products may not be re-orderable in time for Christmas, so it benefits shoppers and retailers to place early orders," Spieckerman said. "Simply being in stock on high-demand products will be a clear advantage this year, one that may even surpass price."
Starting Christmas deals early also helps retailers get an early read on demand and shift their promotional strategies accordingly, she said.
"When inventory runs out on one item, retailers can promote readily available alternatives," Spieckerman said.
On a brighter note, she said, starting the sales early increases the likelihood that shoppers will buy big-ticket items for themselves before the end of the year.
Regardless, Spieckerman said, "We're in for a long, competitive, confusing holiday season."
Given all these factors, Gauri advised Christmas shoppers to adopt a different strategy than in previous years.
"As consumers, we have to be very careful, we have to plan better, we have to shop earlier, and hopefully we'll have all the items we need for the holidays," he said.