Mass Merchant

MINNEAPOLIS — While many retailers are scrambling to attract last minute Christmas shoppers, some, including Target, are already looking ahead to Dec. 26.

Target announced that beginning next Monday, customers can save up to 50% off on such items as women’s and kids’ apparel, as well as home and holiday decor, in stores and online at Target.com. Doors will open at Target stores nationwide at 7 a.m. on Monday.

Enfamil Newborn baby formula was quickly pulled from shelves at 3,000 Walmart stores earlier this week following the death of an infant in Missouri, the Associated Press reported.

Walmart’s online business may have gained ground this holiday season, but Amazon.com doesn’t plan to cede its leadership position, and this week announced plans for two new distribution facilities.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation give away so much money it is hard to keep track of it all and this was certainly evident during the holiday season.

On Thursday, the company announced another round of grants totaling $200,000 to 10 nonprofits groups as part of its “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign. Those grants mark the culmination of an innovating corporate giving campaign that integrated social media and resulted in a total of $1.5 million being awarded to 145 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

C’mon people. Christmas comes the same time every year and every year there are those scrambling to make last-minute purchases. Walmart is looking to appeal to this shopper segment with some interesting solutions that leverage its multichannel capabilities and give new meaning to the phrase “last minute shopping.”

The company’s Pick Up Today service was being aggressively promoted with email marketing and social media efforts to remind gift-givers products ordered online by noon on Christmas Eve would be available for pick up in store by 6 p.m.

Increasing shopper traffic in stores was a challenge for Walmart throughout 2011, but it was a different story online. The retailer surged to number 18 on the November ranking of the top 50 U.S. Internet properties compiled by online measurement firm comScore.

Walmart.com registered 58.5 million unique visitors in November, a big lift sequentially from October when it had 45.2 million visitors and, more impressively, well above November 2010 when comScore showed Walmart.com with 51.8 million visitors.

There were no new surprises during November regarding prices at Walmart, but then that is to be expected. The everyday low price strategy to which Walmart has a newfound adherence is boring and that’s the way the company and presumably its customers like it.

By Craig Johnson

Despite being only the penultimate Saturday before Christmas, 2011’s “Super Saturday” December 17 broke the all-time record for holiday spending, with an estimated $26 billion in total retail sales, according to retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. The total was just shy of the record $27 billion spent on Black Friday.