Retailers' Hottest Holiday Gambit Won't Save Them

At least one hot item seems to have made every retailer's list this holiday season: free shipping. Best Buy (Nasdaq: BBY) has followed several other major retailers in dangling that particular temptation before online shoppers. But while many of these strategies sound impressive on paper, they lack competitive firepower in reality.

Best Buy's free shipping deal will apply to "hundreds of thousands" of products, including CDs, Blu-ray and DVD movies, and gaming software. However, several crucial hot products won't be included in the deal, including Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPads and laptop computers.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) already have their own twists on free shipping promotions. These offers also aim to take a swipe at online retailers like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK).

Still, like Wal-Mart's plan (which also covered a limited amount of items, and excluded hot items such as the iPad), Best Buy's version may not be aggressive enough to jazz holiday shoppers into spending. Excluding some of the hottest giftable gadgets seems like a lackluster commitment to firing up a holiday feeding frenzy.  

Given its mediocre parallels with Wal-Mart's offer, Best Buy's announcement sounds a lot like keeping up with the Joneses, retail style. What do you think? Do retailers need to make a bigger splash to generate sales? After all, a highly promotional stance does hurt retailers' margins, but it can seriously boost customer interest and sales volume -- both key in the all-important holiday season. Share your opinion in the comment box below.