Who says Black Friday is dead?
Many commentators proclaimed Black Friday over last fall after the National Retail Federation reported a big drop in sales for the Thanksgiving Day weekend, saying that earlier and earlier sales had diluted the shopping extravaganza that long kicked off the holiday season.
But at home improvement emporium Home Depot (HD), Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) 2014 turned out to be the biggest sales day ever in the retailer’s history, with shoppers spending $500 million in that single day.
Home Depot’s biggest shopping day has long been Memorial Day, with barbecue season and summer repairs getting into full swing. But a healthy Black Friday this year helped Home Depot report an 8.9% increase in its U.S. comparable sales.
Home Depot has long been the top U.S. seller of Christmas trees, and in 2014 decided to take fuller advantage of holiday season, ramping up promotions on gift items like holiday lights and ornaments, and pushing more power tools, Home Depot CFO Carol Tomé told Fortune. “The customers really responded,” she said.
Other reasons for Home Depot’s bullish 2015 forecast:
-The “continued, moderate housing recovery.” Home Depot forecast a 4.5% increase in U.S. comparable sales, with 1.5 percentage points of that coming from the housing market’s recovery and the rest from GDP growth.
– Some 3.6 million single-family homes were added to the U.S. rental stock between 2006 and 2013. Those homes are “under-maintained,” Tomé told Wall Street analysts, and as those homes become part of the home ownership market “they badly need a remodel.”
– The West Coast port labor dispute has been resolved, helping Home Depot avert a potentially large problem this spring. While much of what it sells is procured from the United States, in spring, Home Depot imports a lot of grills and patio furniture. “But now that that’s resolved, we are feeling good for the spring,” Tomé said.