Dive Brief:

• The Giant Company, which owns Giant and Martin’s grocery stores, announced on Monday it will run "Cyber Days" digital promotions from Monday, Nov. 30 through Thursday, Dec. 3, offering exclusive deals on products ordered online. 
• The post-Thanksgiving promotion will include sales on over 115 national branded items, including buy-two-get-one and buy-one-get-one offers; $30 off first orders of at least $60 from Giant Direct; and free grocery pickup or delivery on all orders. 
• Having launched its Giant Direct and Martin's Direct services a little over a year ago, Giant is now aiming to drive consumer interest and loyalty as shoppers turn to online shopping post-Thanksgiving.

Dive Insight:

Unlike previous years, Black Friday will take place mostly online this year, extending the traditional Cyber Monday online shopping surge to over a week of digital-oriented sales across retail and grocery. Walmart has said that its Black Friday online deals will be revealed on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, while Amazon has already launched a slew of "Early Black Friday Deals." Last year, Cyber Monday was the single biggest shopping day ever for the e-commerce giant. 

With customers limiting their in-store shopping amid surging COVID-19 infection rates, online orders, including those in grocery, are expected to skyrocket this holiday season. Retail analysis by Digital Commerce 360 has predicted a 43.3% jump from 2019 and an overall spend of approximately $198.7 billion with online retailers. As customers across the country are spending less on services such as travel, entertainment, and restaurant meals this holiday season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, spending on goods has soared to well above 2019 levels. 

Grocery brands like Giant are advertising their online offerings heavily, but analysts have predicted that high-demand items in some regions of the country may still see some supply bottlenecks over the coming month. Grocery stores in Detroit, where the governor recently tightened restrictions on gatherings, have noted shortages on canned and dried goods, a familiar pattern seen during the first virus wave in the spring. 

Demand for some holiday-season items is expected to look different this year: as fewer Americans host large gatherings, sales of small turkeys are predicted to see a significant spike. And according to an annual survey of Americans by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the average shopper will spend the lowest amount in a decade on a traditional 10-person Thanksgiving meal, an estimated $46.90.