New factors may influence retail shopping this winter

Sep. 27—Holiday shopping is expected to be an uncertain undertaking this season as supply chain issues affect availability and store policies change.

Retailers warn that shopping early might not be too bad of an idea.

Economic experts at Deloitte are predicting a seven to nine percent increase in e-commerce sales. While this sounds great for the producer, such strong economic growth in such a short period of time has its disadvantages.

According to a study by Salesforce, several factors, including shipping, freighting, and labor, will increase retailers' costs of goods sold by $233 billion as the pandemic surges onward, thereby persuading more and more consumers to shop online.

According to that same study, shoppers will likely face higher prices heading into the 2021 holiday season due to inflation and shortages in supply as those prices get handed down to the consumer.

Meanwhile, Walmart announced last week it is removing its traditional layaway program from all stores effective immediately. It has introduced instead a new program called Affirm a credit line-based "pay later" option according to a statement released by its spokesperson, Matt Smith, from the office of Walmart Corporate Affairs.

"We've learned a lot in the past year as our customers' needs and shopping habits have changed," said Smith. "Last holiday season, we removed seasonal layaway from most of our stores with the exception of select jewelry items at select stores, and based on what we learned, we are confident that our payment options provide the right solutions for our customers."

Smith said the replacement program is a financing option that will offer monthly installments. He said in addition, the company has a credit card option available through Capital One, with cash back of five percent on Walmart.com and two percent in Walmart stores.

Smith declined to comment further on the reason behind the sudden shift.