We have yet to place this year’s Halloween in the history books, but there has been a plethora of news regarding the Christmas season and what businesses are looking to do to boost sales after a pretty mundane summer. Here are things to know so far regarding the 2014 holiday season.
Amazon to hire 80,000 seasonal workers
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced Thursday that it will hire 80,000 seasonal workers for its warehouse network in the United States for the upcoming Christmas season. This figure represents a 14 percent increase from the previous year as the online retail giant continues to shift its distribution centers closer to city centers.
The staffing addition may be a part of Amazon’s fourth-quarter 20 percent revenue projection. Amazon currently maintains 50 American warehouses and expects to have a minimum of 15 sorting centers by the end of the year.
“So far this year, we have converted more than 10,000 seasonal employees in the U.S. into regular, full-time roles and we’re looking forward to converting thousands more across our growing network of fulfillment and sortation centers after this holiday season,” said Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North America operations, in a statement.
“We’re excited to be creating 80,000 seasonal jobs, thousands of which will lead to regular, full-time roles with benefits starting on day one and innovative programs like Career Choice for employees to further pursue their education.”
Despite many viewing this as a positive signal for the Internet retailer, some financial experts state this employment move could only add to future losses since Amazon lost money in the previous quarter and is on target of continuing this trend in the current period.
Other stores following suit
Amazon isn’t the only retailer boosting their seasonal staff teams.
Wal-Mart already plans to add seasonal staffers this year after it hired too few last year. Macy’s confirmed it’s adding 86,000 seasonal workers, Kohl’s will increase its staff by about 67,000 workers, Gap is hiring 63,000 workers and the United Parcel Service (UPS) is adding as much as 95,000 seasonal staff members.
Amazon stores for Christmas
During the holiday season, Amazon will be opening up two pop-up shops in the state of California, according to the Los Angeles Times. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the stores will be stationed in San Francisco and Sacramento. Amazon did not released the specific dates as to when the stores will start to be open and when they’ll be closed.
“While customers can already see our products online and at retailers like Best Buy and Staples, we wanted to provide another option to try out our full line-up leading into the holidays,” a spokesperson noted in a statement.
Wal-Mart reduced forecast
Although numerous retailers rely on holiday sales to give their revenues a shot in the arm, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has actually decided to trim its full-year sales forecast, citing a difficult economy. In fact, the international retail titan projects only modest growth in the coming years. This outlook concerned investors, particularly with Christmas right around the corner.
Wal-Mart attempted to calm shareholders’ nerves by outlining its plan for growth, including building a greater number of small-format Neighborhood Market stores, investing in ecommerce and jumpstarting U.S. comparable store sales.
Wealthier shoppers to help retailers?
A new report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) opined that affluent shoppers in the U.S. will likely drive sales this year as stores begin to slash prices.
We reported that the retailer organization forecasted holiday sales of $616.9 billion, a 3.1 percent increase from last year. It also projected online sales will continue to grow as shoppers search for better deals, convenience and have a limited amount of time available because of the holiday crunch.
