'Black Thursday' gets holiday shopping season off to an early start

Shoppers are hitting the stores -- and the web -- Thursday as the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear earlier.

This Thanksgiving Day, many retailers -- including Macy's, Best Buy, Kohl's, Kmart, Sears, Toys R Us, J.C. Penney, Target, Walmart and Staples -- will open stores as early as 8 a.m., with the majority at 6 p.m.

Even with earlier store hours, mobile and online shopping are projected to see a record-breaking year as retailers embrace the Internet and roll out more deals over more days to entice consumers.

National Retail Federation surveys suggest that more than 140.1 million people may shop today through Sunday, both in stores and online. A record 56 percent of consumers say they plan to shop online this holiday season, the NRF said.

One local analyst predicts online will become the top way to shop this holiday season for the first time.

"It would be the number one source for shopping," said Marshal Cohen, retail analyst with The NPD Group, a Port Washington-based market research company. "To dethrone the retailers' shopping environment is big."

While a higher percentage of shoppers say they plan to buy online rather than in stores, brick and mortar purchases will still account for more than 80 percent of this year's projected $616.9 billion in holiday sales, according to the National Retail Federation. For many people, shopping is now a combination of web use and visiting stores, a trend retailers are trying to take full advantage of to boost sales.

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Shopping searches on Google coming from smartphones have more than tripled year-over-year and continue to grow, said Google retail industry director Scott Falzone.

"This is going to be the most mobile season in history," Falzone said. "People can shop while being in a store, while watching TV and standing on a line . . . Mobile is helping make the consumer more empowered and more informed, so that when they arrive in the store they have an easier time finding what they are looking for."

Retailers like Toys R Us have become more "omni-channel" -- meaning they allow consumers to choose to shop in stores, online or with mobile applications.

"We have some excellent omni-channel functionality that allows our customers to shop how they want," said Richard Barry, the toy store's chief merchandising officer. "They can buy it online and pick it up in the store to have a free shipping opportunity."

Retailers including Walmart and Target are using mobile apps to guide consumers to merchandise in their physical stores. "You can know where things are with the map on the app," Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said.

IBM expects online sales to increase 15 percent between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday compared with last year, with mobile sales accounting for 28 percent of those sales, an increase of 9 percent over last year.

"Mobile is the new front door to Target," Target spokesman Eddie Baeb said. "It is where our guests generally go to first. We are seeing them use mobile more and more for shopping."

But analysts said retailers' efforts -- including opening earlier and offering Black Friday deals throughout the weekend -- won't encourage shoppers to spend more. Fifty-nine percent of New Yorkers plan to spend about the same on gifts this year as last year, while 32 percent plan to spend less and only 7 percent intend to spend more, according to the Siena College Research Institute.

"Earlier sales don't mean any more business. It just means a shift of when you get the sales," Cohen said.