While shoppers will frequent stores and online shopping in higher numbers than other weekends on that day, “the Black Friday phenomenon is not as exciting as it used to be in the last decade.
What is “Black Friday”
“Black Friday” in the United States refers to the day after Thanksgiving when retailers have big sales to entice customers to shop and get a start on their holiday gift purchases.
According to History.com, “The most commonly repeated story behind the Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers. As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly earn a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted merchandise. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the officially sanctioned—but inaccurate—story behind the tradition.” When tracing the origins of the term back through newspapers, it appears the term actually came from swarms of people descending into the city to see the Thanksgiving weekend football game in Philadelphia. While it began as a negative connotation, since the paper and people “used the term to describe the chaos that ensued,” when “Philly cops [would] not be able to take the [holiday] off, but they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic,” in the 1980’s retailers successfully rebranded the term “Black Friday” to refer to the more nostalgic version about shopping and super sales used today.
Decades ago, before online shopping changed consumer demands and patterns, almost all retail stores used to be closed on Thanksgiving, but they would offer early hours for opening on Black Friday with “mega deals” for certain items or special discounts for the earliest hours in order to get shoppers to visit their stores. Shoppers would line up early, sometimes camping out for hours or days in order to save their spot in line.
Retailers began making their opening hours earlier and earlier on Black Friday, such as 3 and 4AM, so people would do Thanksgiving dinner with their families and then head out to camp in front of their favorite store.
Source: Business Insider
Year after year, stores vied for the spot of being the earliest to open, although employees grumbled as their employers began pushing to open as early as 1AM and finally crossed into opening late Thanksgiving night rather than waiting for the calendar day to change at midnight. In the recent years, big chains don’t even close on Thanksgiving, or they are closed for the morning and afternoon but open after 5 or 6pm (note: many Americans eat Thanksgiving “dinner at 3 or 4pm, which is far earlier than usual dinner time), offering “Day of Thanksgiving” exclusive sales to get shoppers to start Thanksgiving night rather than waiting until the next day.
Still, the expansion of Black Friday to include Thanksgiving Thursday or even the entire weekend hasn’t watered down the enthusiasm or sales. Black Friday is still the “one day of the year where you can expect basically all major retailers—from Amazon to Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and others—to release discounts on many top-rated items. While there are sales throughout the year, Black Friday effectively functions like the Super Bowl of savings, and you can expect to find markdowns at almost every store or e-commerce website” (Source 1, Source 2).
Some stores, in an effort to highlight their emphasis on valuing time with family and their employees’ well-being, have actually stopped expanding the days and hours their open and instead took a stand against being open on Thanksgiving and early on Black Friday. According to NPR in 2021, Target, a major retailer similar to Walmart, “began opening its stores on Thanksgiving a decade ago, joining other retailers in kicking off Black Friday sales a day early and creating a holiday rush after the turkey feast. Many did so to compete with Amazon.com and other rising online threats. But the shift seemed to merely cannibalize Black Friday sales. And big retailers suffered some blowback from critics who said thousands of people were forced to work, rather than being with family during the holiday.” Now, Target has declared it will never open its stores again on Thanksgiving, and other retailers are joining suit.
What does Black Friday Look Like Now?
This year, Black Friday will fall on Friday, November 25th. While shoppers will frequent stores and online shopping in higher numbers than other weekends on that day, “the Black Friday phenomenon is not as exciting as it used to be in the last decade. Shoppers are more used to Black Friday deals and promotions, and there aren’t as many queues in front of shops anymore” (Source). Some retailers and media even refer to the entire month of November as “Black November,” as online stores have taken to calling the Monday following Black Friday “Cyber Monday” or “Cyber Week,” and many deals run through the entire month or new deals develop over the course of the month. “For the entire month of November, retailers had to arrange their sales to keep customers’ attention deliberately. Instead of giving storewide blanket offers throughout the month, some shops promote deals on certain product categories over specified days or weeks” (Source).
“The most obvious prediction for 2022 Black Friday is that, with COVID-19 aftermath still ongoing, online shopping will continue to increase, and shoppers will buy more products online than offline. Both world giants and small businesses have been preparing for Black Friday since the summer and aim to get the most out of Black Friday 2022. As a result, retailers are putting more stress on their websites and online campaigns. Offline campaigns will probably be similar to online campaigns, or fewer campaigns offline” (Source).
What Does This Mean Globally For Business?
“The reaction to shopper behaviour is to start sales earlier in November. As early holiday shopping increased, retailers changed their sale schedules. According to polls performed by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics in 2019, 56% of buyers began buying holiday gifts around the first week of November, up from 48% in 2009” (Source).
African businesses can make the most of Black Friday potential by offering online deals for the month of November, knowing that American customers will be looking for sales and incentives and have the upcoming holidays are driving reasons to finalize purchases.
Note that many retailers begin advertising for Black Friday at the beginning of November, trying to build anticipation for the day or weekend following Thanksgiving. To reach your American customers’ try marketing to their desire to purchase gifts for loved ones, friends, co-workers, employees, etc. Retailers also often highlight the limited time these deals will be around, remind their customers they want to get their shopping down before the busy December holiday season begins, and appeal to their desire to find unique gifts and their lowest cost.
One final thought to keep in mind: “According to research from Conlumino, 75% of consumers would rarely buy certain products at full price, and 62% say they wait to buy until a product is on offer or discounted. Therefore, when stores do not discount certain products on Black Friday or just put small deals, consumers will not rush to buy the product but wait for the price to decrease enough for their budget” (Source).
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