2017 has been a tough year for retailers. With major retailers like Toys R Us filing for bankruptcy, Macys closing 68 stores, and JCPenney closing 138, holiday hiring is expected to be down in 2017. Spending is not expected to decline this year, with many expecting a healthy 4% sales bump over last year.
Much of that growth is expected to be online, which is why hiring for fulfillment centers is set to increase. Macys as confirmed that they will hire 18,000 workers for its disruption centers, an increase of 3,000 over last year. Traditional big box stores are slowly but surely seeing the value of eCommerce and are making plans accordingly. For brands, this means the importance of online tracking at stores such as Macy’s is increasing, as more shoppers turn to online store fronts during the all important holiday shopping period.
Likewise, Target has not broken out what percent of holiday workers are going to be in stores vs in distribution centers, but overall hiring is up for the first time in 5 years. Target has confirmed that this increase in hiring is driven by demand for in store click & collect, and for behind the scene staff who will be assembling and shipping online orders that are filled from store merchandise.
Retailers have been slow to open themselves up to online shopping, allowing Amazon and to an extent Walmart in the US to drive headlines. This year is the first in which the consumer shift to online shopping is having an impact on hiring trends, which is a sign that traditional brick and mortar players are taking eCommerce seriously.
