"The holiday season is expanding, and Black Friday is no longer the kickoff for the season," said Natalie Kotlyar, who heads retail and consumer products at business advisory firm BDO Consumer, adding many start holiday shopping at Halloween, Labor Day or even Amazon's Prime Day on July 12.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,639 adults online showed 63 percent did not plan to shop on Black Friday this year. Some 32 percent said they plan to finish about half of their holiday shopping on that day.
The year-end shopping season spanning November and December is crucial for retailers because it can account for up to 40 percent of their annual sales. The NRF, which has been overly optimistic at times in the past with its sales projections, expects holiday sales to grow 3.6 percent this year to $655.8 billion.
For Black Friday alone, about 70 percent of retailers expect sales to remain flat this year, according to telephone interviews with chief marketing officers at 100 U.S. retail firms, BDO Consumer said.
Nevertheless, big bricks-and-mortar players like Target and Wal-Mart will still open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago, Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Cynthia Osterman)
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