This year, the calendar is not on the side of retailers. Since Thanksgiving fell on the latest date possible, that leads to the shortest Christmas shopping season possible, when defined as starting the day after Christmas and ending Christmas Eve. LSU Marketing Professor Dan Rice says retailers started their Black Friday deals early this year, as they’ve done in years past.

“They’re getting into that idea of the shopping season’s coming up we’re going to give you these ideas early, and if you don’t get those, you’ll get some next week.”

And the short shopping season is forcing shoppers to adjust their behavior.

People realize if they don’t get that purchase now then they may not have time to go back for it.  So things like end aisle displays and displays in the checkout lanes may have more impact than they otherwise would of because people have this fear that if they don’t pick it up now they may lose out on a deal or may not get it back.”

Rice says the short season is also driving shoppers to the online route to save time.

“If they can do shopping in a different number of online spaces as opposed to physically going from store to store that may save time and allow them to be more efficient with their purchasing power.”