Business

Retailers try to lure late holiday shoppers with free shipping

The latest sign that retailers are desperate this Christmas: free shipping.

Big chains industrywide are extending their deadlines for free shipping to the final days before Christmas as they scramble to sell piled-up holiday goods to procrastinating shoppers.

Nordstrom, for example, is offering free overnight shipping for online buyers of its pricey fashions as late as Dec. 23, versus Dec. 21 last year.

Indeed, one in every six retailers nationwide is offering free or upgraded expedited shipping as late as Dec. 23, according to online retail trade group Shop.org.

“Free-shipping deals always help get last-minute shoppers in gear,” said Pam Goodfellow of Prosper’s Consumer Insights, which performed the study for Shop.org.

One in five retailers will offer such a deal as late as this coming Sunday, while a full third will honor it as late as Saturday, Dec. 21, according to the survey.

That’s despite the industry’s widespread promotion this year of Dec. 18 as “Free Shipping Day,” encouraging shoppers to make their online purchases sooner rather than later.

The shipping deals come as retailers pull out all the stops to lure shoppers in what appears to be the most anemic holiday season since the depths of the Great Recession.

While stores like Gap and Ann Taylor hawk goods at 50 percent off, retailers like Macy’s, Kohl’s and Toys R Us are keeping many of their stores open 24 hours a day in the final days before Dec. 25.