NEW YORK (AP) — This holiday shopping season, it’s Amazon vs. everyone else.
The online giant has attracted customers from big store chains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy with low prices and convenient shipping. Now, stores are fighting to get customers back during the busiest shopping period of the year.
Stores are doing things like matching the lower prices on Amazon.com and offering the same discounts in stores as on their websites. For its part, Amazon is giving customers the option to pick up items at physical locations and adding Sunday delivery.
The two sides are dueling over shoppers like Jessica Danielle, a speechwriter who plans to do the bulk of her Christmas shopping on Amazon. “All the time spent going to brick-and-mortar stores, is it worth my time?” said Danielle, 31, who lives in Washington, D.C. “I don’t think so.”
There’s a lot at stake for both sides. Amazon has built a following, but wants to grow its business globally. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers struggle to keep shoppers from using their stores as showrooms to test out and try on items before buying them for less on Amazon.
The holiday season ups the ante. Both online and brick-and-mortar retailers can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue in November and December. And this year, they’re competing for the growing number of shoppers who are as comfortable buying online as in stores.
Holiday sales are expected to rise 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion, according to The National Retail Federation. Of that, about $78.7 billion is expected to be online, up 15 percent from last year, according to Forrester Research.
Here’s how the fight is playing out:
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