MINNEAPOLIS _ Among those who will be cheering this week for the end of this highly contentious and emotionally draining election season are America's retailers, now itching for shoppers to get into the holiday spirit.
Target Corp. and Best Buy Co., both of which are headquartered in the Minneapolis area and experienced a bumpy first half of the year, are especially eager for people to stop bickering and start planning what will go under the tree. Their holiday ads have started airing on TV, including during the World Series. Their stores are now decked out with holiday signage. And both have launched free holiday shipping promotions.
The holidays are always a central focus for retailers. The season often accounts for about one-third of their annual sales, as well as a disproportionate amount of profits. But this year, analysts said, the stakes are even higher for the two industry giants.
While many retail forecasts are calling for 3 to 4 percent growth in holiday sales, slightly better than the last couple years, both Target and Best Buy are gearing up for more modest growth as they grapple with a number of industry and company-specific challenges.
"They both have something to prove," said Carol Spieckerman, a retail consultant.
Target and Best Buy are in the midst of multiyear turnarounds under chief executives who were brought in from the outside. And both are facing a growing threat from Amazon, which is poised to once again rake in a greater share of holiday dollars as spending continues to shift online.
The firm Cowen and Co. notes that Amazon has been rapidly growing its rank of Prime members to an estimated 49 million households that get access not only to its streaming video content but also to free two-day delivery.
The online behemoth also has expanded its Prime Now service to more markets, offering delivery within two hours on select products, a service that is especially in high demand in the final sprint to Christmas.
On top of that, Amazon has been aggressively expanding newer categories such as clothing.
"Amazon is unstoppable," said Robin Lewis, CEO of retail strategy publication the Robin Report. "They're going faster than anybody. They're growing product categories. ... They are a threat to all of these guys, and they know it."
According to an annual holiday survey by Deloitte, shoppers plan to spend an equal amount online as in physical retail stores for the first time this holiday season. But that doesn't just mean Amazon and other online-only retailers.
Best Buy and Target, while still catching up to Amazon's technical prowess, both have been investing in their desktop and mobile sites. Their online sales have been rapidly growing, accounting for about 10 percent and 3 percent, respectively, of overall sales.
Best Buy also now gets many of its orders to customers' doorsteps within two days _ the result of a shift a few years ago to having its stores double as distribution centers for online shipments.
"And it's free _ you don't have to pay a subscription to get the service," Hubert Joly, Best Buy's chief executive, said a few months ago in an obvious nod to Amazon's Prime program, which costs $99 a year.
Target is more than doubling the number of stores from which it can ship this season to more than 1,000, up from 400 last year. That improves shipping times by about 25 percent, Target CEO Brian Cornell said recently.
"We're in virtually every neighborhood across the country and can deliver now at a much faster pace," he said.
Brick-and-mortar retailers also have buy-online pickup in stores in their arsenal _ something online-only retailers can't offer.
