Will Smartphones Affect Black Friday Sales?

By Martha Dalton

Atlanta – Many retailers have been promoting "Black Friday" sales for weeks. But one forecaster thinks smartphones could impact stores' sales more than their one-page ads. WABE's Martha Dalton reports.

Stuart Dunkin is the founder of Data Profits, an inventory management and supply chain forecasting company. He says this Black Friday, consumers will likely break out their smartphones while shopping:
"Tweeting, Facebooking, messaging, calling people and saying, Here's what the price is here, here's how much it is, here's how much is left.'" Or Somebody's gonna tell them, Oh, no, no, no, the price is better over here.'"
Retailers chose their holiday inventory in April. Duncan says the image that inventory conveys to the consumer will affect their bottom line:
"It's really not about price. It's more about what kind of decisions the retailer made about what they were going to run with in their shop in terms of how they're going to present their inventory."
Dunkin advises consumers to do their homework-both online and in stores - to find the best deals before going out to brave the crowds.