Retailers are ramping up hiring for the holiday season, but fewer seasonal employees are expected to be taken on this year to help customers in stores and assemble online orders in warehouses.
E-commerce giant Amazon said Thursday it will hire 250,000 full, part-time and seasonal workers for the crucial shopping period, rounding out a series of announcements made in recent weeks by the country's top retailers.
FILE - Amazon employees load packages on carts before being put on to trucks for distribution to customers for Amazon's annual Prime Day event at an Amazon's DAX7 delivery station on July 16, 2024, in South Gate, Calif. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
Amazon is hiring the same number of employees it did last year, similar to Bath & Body Works and Target, which said in September it will bring in roughly 100,000 seasonal employees and offer current employees the option to work extra hours during the holiday shopping period.
Meanwhile, the department store Kohl's encouraged people to apply for positions but stayed mum on its plans, mirroring Walmart, which said it's been hiring store associates throughout the year and will tap into its own staff when needed during the busy season.
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Others have indicated they will scale back their hiring. Macy's said it will add more than 31,500 seasonal positions this year across its Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury stores, as well as its distribution centers. Last year, the company added 38,000.
FILE - Walmart workers organize merchandise at a Superstore in Secaucus, New Jersey, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
The holiday shopping period is the busiest time of year for online and brick-and-mortar retailers, some of which have already announced discount events to entice consumers planning to shop early for gifts.
The consulting firm Deloitte forecasts U.S. retail sales will increase between 2.3% to 3.3% during the November to January timeframe and reach a total of $1.59 trillion. EY-Parthenon, the consulting arm of Ernst & Young, forecasts a similar 3% jump in sales during the traditional November-December period. However, it says price increases due to inflation are likely to account for a big chunk of that growth, noting real volume sales will only rise 0.5% year-over-year.
Online sales, a growing segment of retail, is expected to increase 8.4% and reach a record $240.8 billion, according to Adobe, which tracks e-commerce transactions.
"At the moment, retailers appear optimistic for a strong holiday shopping season, which is being reflected in the hiring plans of major retailers and warehouses," said Andy Challenger, senior vice president at the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Overall, U.S. retailers are expected to add 520,000 new jobs in the final quarter of this year compared to 564,200 in 2023, according to a report released last month by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The firm, which analyzes non-seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, says that's more than the 509,300 seasonal jobs retailers added in 2022. But it represents the second-lowest total since 2009.
Generally, the labor market has gradually lost momentum since the Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark interest rate numerous times in 2022 and 2023 to combat high inflation. Last month, the Fed cut its key rate for the first time in more than four years. It reflected its new focus on bolstering the job market, which saw positive signs this week when data from the Labor Department showed job openings rose unexpectedly in August.
But the retail industry may encounter challenges filing openings in the coming weeks and months "due to the demands of the job and pay," Challenger said.
To scoop up employees, companies like Macy's and JCPenney as well as sporting goods stores Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's are recruiting workers through nationwide hiring events. Macy's had said it would offer on-the-spot interviews during its first event, which took place last week in its stores and warehouses. The company plans to hold three more events this year.
"We are finding strong application flow," said Macy's, adding nearly a third of its recent hires are employees who've previously worked at the company.
Amid the growth in online shopping, the delivery giant UPS is planning to hire 125,000 seasonal workers for the holiday rush, up from 100,000 last year.
Radial, an e-commerce company that powers deliveries for brands like Calvin Klein and Express, says it will hire fewer people but also plans to scale its staff based on real-time demand. That approach allows the company to meet customers' needs "without overcommitting," said Billy Peterson, a senior vice president at Radial.
On the buyer side, consumers have been resilient with their spending while also showing signs of stress, with credit-card debt rising and savings rates falling, trends that could weigh on spending in future months.
Retail sales ticked up from July to August, after jumping the most in a year and a half the previous month. At the same time, consumers have been more prudent about their purchases and pushing back against high prices by trading down to store brands or seeking out deals for products.
However, holiday shoppers could see even higher prices on products if a port workers' strike that has shut down all the major dockyards on the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. and the Gulf coast persists for more than a month.
The Gen Z QVC: How social media influences generational shopping habits
The Gen Z QVC: How social media influences generational shopping habits
If you think you don't need a Lululemon belt bag, Scrub Daddy sponges, or a Revlon one-step hair dryer, your social media feed might convince you otherwise. These are but two sold-out items that went viral thanks to #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. The hashtag has had more than 129 billion views since launching.
Social media has transformed into social commerce, a trend born long before TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, launched its shop feature last year. In the U.S., e-commerce sales accounted for over in the second quarter of 2024, and the value of sales grew 9% from the same period the year before, according to Census data.
But TikTok's frictionless shopping experience, which features live streams and videos that allow鈥攁nd even encourage鈥攙iewers to make purchases directly in the app via the "shop" button, has been a game changer. The rise of e-commerce that pushes consumers to make decisions based on social media ads and promotional videos has profoundly affected Gen Z's shopping habits, according to a 2024 survey from social media forecaster eMarketer. Just over 2 in 3 Gen Zers say they're on TikTok, compared to less than 1 in 5 social media users from all other generations.
In theory, its creators designed social media platforms for interpersonal connection, not commerce. But, like Facebook Marketplace, apps like TikTok and Instagram are doubling down on their role as merchants. Thanks to the shop feature, TikTok offers millions of users the chance to purchase a wide array of things, such as household goods or $10 "Taylor Swift for President" flags鈥攂ut it may be destroying what users love about the app in the process.
One way TikTok has turned the app into a virtual mall is by integrating the TikTok Shop in the main feed so that product videos pop up while users browse. The feature has transformed the curated content on the app's "For You Page" into "," and some media critics see it as a far cry from the app's initial mission of . It's also a win for TikTok, which takes a commission from third-party sellers.
But how, exactly, does that influence shopping?聽 analyzed surveys from , and others to illustrate the ways social media is influencing the shopping habits of young consumers.
When scrolling turns into shopping
To online-centric shoppers, calling the 1-800 number on the screen to purchase whatever gadget or beauty product is being highlighted on air might seem decidedly old school. However, the approach perfected by network shopping channels like QVC and HSN, which provide an in-home shopping experience built on relationships, exclusive discounts, big names, and even bigger personalities, has plenty of commonality with Canvas Beauty. The cosmetics brand made a record-setting $1 million in sales after a six-hour live stream on TikTok Shop, showing that if you can capture someone's attention, you might be able to capture their money, too.
There are surprising similarities and stark differences in how different generations spend their dollars, especially in an era where every social media platform is now a virtual shopping center. This total integration begs the question: Are these new platforms different than older models for Gen X and baby boomers, or is it just a case of a new medium spouting out the same message: to sell, sell, sell?
The younger generation's reliance on influencers has created a slew of new marketing strategies. By keeping purchasing in-house, it results in big business for apps that take commission from third-party sellers. The potential for profits is so significant that TikTok was willing to lose money in 2023 as it launched in the U.S. and has raised seller fees.
In some sense, TikTok Shop still has an untapped audience. While older generations are less inclined to make purchases directly from social media, they're more established and have plenty of purchasing power.
The data also reveals salient generational differences concerning a brand's relationship to sustainability and social justice. Hubspot's 2024 Consumer Trends Report found that younger consumers are . They value more sustainable products that are better for the environment and prefer to shop at companies that take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender inequality, and climate change. Conversely, the majority of baby boomers say that companies should not take a strong stance on social issues.
While are more interested in virtual marketing and online shopping than baby boomers, who still allow TV ads and retail stores to dictate what they buy, boomers tend to spend more per purchase, according to a 2024 Whop survey.
The popularity of TikTok Shop represents something new that will inevitably impact all generations: the full integration of shopping and entertainment. But despite the platform's continued growth, the pendulum may swing back if commerce ever fully eclipses engagement.
Take, for instance, the rise and fall of Instagram Live Shopping, which began in 2020 and had relative success. However, its sales and engagement quickly plummeted, and Instagram discontinued the feature in 2023. By deprioritizing retail, Instagram could refocus on the app's mission to " around concepts of connection and creativity, Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri explained in a video post, rather than turning an app about community into one long infomercial.
Gen Z is the first cohort to come of age in a fully immersive virtual marketplace. As they grow up and their purchasing power increases, who knows if the inescapable and endless loop of products will age with them? In this sense, boomers may have one over Gen Z: At least with shopping networks and infomercials, you can always just change the channel.
Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.
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