American Eagle To Keep Holiday Spirit High With 10,000 Hires

With the holiday season approaching, American Eagle Outfittiers Inc. (NYSE:AEO) is ramping up holiday preparations to make this year’s shopping fest a success. The company plans to hire around 10,000 part-time associates for its American Eagle (“AE”) and Aerie brands to optimize customer experience. The hiring event will be held at the company’s stores in the United States and Canada on Oct 20.

The company is searching for brand advocates to include in the selling team and fill important positions. These associates are entitled to a 40% discount on merchandise and can participate in special contests for prizes and giveaways. Candidates can apply at the company’s local stores.

Holiday Rush Triggers Seasonal Hiring

The holiday season is a crucial time for retailers as it accounts for a sizeable chunk of yearly revenues and profits. Taking aboard seasonal employees to enhance customers’ experience during the holiday period is a traditional strategy in the sector. Additionally, retailers try to attract customers with early-hour store openings, huge discounts and other promotional strategies. The National Retail Federation (NRF) anticipates retailers to employ about 530,000-590,000 temporary workers this year. This compares with nearly 554,000 seasonal employees hired in 2018.

Lately, Macy’s (NYSE:M) , Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) and Target (NYSE:TGT) announced their hiring plans. For instance, Macy’s expects to hire nearly 80,000 seasonal workers for the holiday season. The staff will be appointed for Macy’s and Bloomingdale stores, distribution and fulfillment centers, and call centers. Dollar Tree plans to deploy more than 25,000 associates for its Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores during the period. Likewise, Target intends to appoint more than 130,000 seasonal workers to provide a great shopping experience to customers.

Robust Holiday Sales Forecasts

Going by Deloitte’s recent holiday sales projection, retailers are all set to revel again in the euphoria of the upcoming festive season. Holiday sales are expected to increase 4.5-5% and exceed $1.1 trillion between November 2019 and January 2020. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales are estimated to improve 14-18% to reach $144-149 billion.

Further, NRF expects holiday retail sales for November and December to increase about 3.8-4.2% (excluding automobiles, restaurants and gasoline) to $727.9-$730.7 billion. This is indicative of an increase from $701.2 billion in 2018. Moreover, NRF anticipates online and other non-store sales to improve 11-14% to $162.6-$166.9 billion. Meanwhile, online and non-store sales were $146.5 billion last year.

Wrapping Up

Coming back to American Eagle, the seasonal hiring plans reflect its focus on bettering customer experience. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company strives to build a customer-friendly environment by developing its omni-channel platform including digital enhancements and investment in store fleet. Furthermore, the success of the company’s body positivity movement testifies its efforts to expand market share and rapidly grow customer base for its Aerie brand. The brand remains on track to touch the next milestone of $1-billion in sales. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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