Black Friday is now one of, if not the biggest shopping event of the year, and yet, less than five years ago it was a relatively unknown concept to the majority of UK shoppers.
The now global shopping event, which hails from the US, falls on the day after Thanksgiving, a bridge day that most Americans take as holiday, so it works structurally and is much more of an entertainment event. It also marks the start of the busy Christmas shopping period.
Although there is much debate surrounding the origins of the term “Black Friday” the common consensus is that it became widely used in the 1960s. Philadelphia police used the term “Black Friday” to describe one of the most chaotic days of the year, as the city and stores were flooded with tourists and shoppers from nearby suburbs, ahead of the big Army-Navy football game (USA Today).
An NRF survey forecast that this Black Friday 99.8 million people in the US intend to shop. Some 135.8 million in total plan to shop on Thanksgiving weekend and nearly 80 percent of holiday shoppers – 183.8 million people – plan to shop on Cyber Monday (NRF).
(National Retail Federation)
Black Friday is now a similarly prosperous event for UK retailers, both in-store and online, despite the fact that the event was only introduced to UK shoppers just a few years ago. Retail researcher Conlumino forecast that this Black Friday will generate sales of £1.6 billion in the UK alone, up 20 percent from 2014.
UK shoppers are expected to spend 21 percent, equivalent to £450 million more, during the four day duration of the event, than France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium combined (Express).
Black Friday sales driven by ecommerce
The Black Friday beast grew from a much humbler creature, having evolved from pre-Christmas sales reductions in US department stores, to a worldwide online shopping phenomenon.
The exponential growth of Black Friday in the UK, since introduction, and further growth in the US, has been driven by online stores.
After all, the very concept of Black Friday was introduced to UK shoppers by ecommerce giant Amazon five years ago. Walmart-owned Asda was quick to follow suit in 2013, followed by most of the major retailers including John Lewis, Currys and Argos in 2014.
UK shoppers were very quick to embrace the shopping event – this year a 32 percent year-on-year increase to £1.1 billion in sales is expected, according to Experian-IMRG.
UK retailer, Argos saw more than 13.5 million visits to its web channels – website and mobile apps – on Black Friday 2014, up 197 percent from 2013 (Internet Retailing). It expects that mobile commerce, which currently equates to 25 percent of its everyday sales, will provide a convenient channel for Black Friday shoppers this year.
Chief Operating Officer at Argos, David Robinson, said, “We know an increasing number of customers want to be able to snap up deals whenever and wherever they are, using smartphones and tablets whether it’s in front of the telly or on their way to work, so we’ve made this as easy as possible for them.”
A similar story is emerging in the US market where shoppers are similarly eager to snap up Black Friday deals while on the move. On Thanksgiving and Black Friday in 2014, 29 percent of all shopping was done on mobile devices (Adobe Digital Index 2014).
This year Amazon is actually incentivising mobile shopping, offering exclusive offers to those that download and use its app, as well as providing mobile alerts for their limited-time lightning deals (Techtimes).
Black Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday…
The sales opportunities Black Friday presents has proved both a blessing and a curse to many UK retailers.
The rapid adoption of the event is at first glance hugely appealing to retailers. However, the quick uptake has come at a price – retailers just don’t seem to know exactly what their shoppers want.
As such, many retailers failed to make a noticeable profit last year, despite the huge spending predictions.
It may be a similar story this year – Home Retail Group, has already issued a profit warning on fears that its heavy spending on advertising and new delivery vans may not feed through into strong Black Friday sales (The Guardian).
Has Black Friday in the UK already peaked? Does it actually make any difference to volume sales and revenue? For ‘regular’ stores, no, but it does for discounters, and particularly online discounters, for whom it is a potentially lucrative period. The Financial Times reports that ‘the balance of retailers reporting a rise in sales volumes over those reporting a drop was seven percentage points, well below expectations of 24 percentage points.’
Perhaps one of the most surprising developments this year comes from Asda, one of the UK’s earliest adopters, who will be shunning the event completely. Asda bosses cited ‘shopper fatigue’ as a main reason that they will not be partaking.
Is there a broader backlash to the retail stunt? Some UK brands and retailers are seizing the opportunity to boycott Black Friday, e.g. Primark and Asda. Fat Face is giving £250k to local charities. In the US, sports goods retailer REI have closed all of its stores and given its staff an extra break so they are fresh for the rest of the busy shopping period.
Conversely others have chosen the opposite tactic, to extend their Black Friday deals.
Many large US retailers including Macy’s, Target, Best Buy and Kohl’s, have already pushed forward the beginning of their Black Friday sales into Thanksgiving Day. Target announced a 10-day marathon of deals and Amazon started its Countdown to Black Friday Deals Week. (Signal.co)
A similar approach has been taken by many UK retailers, most notably Argos and Curry’s. Argos began this year’s proceedings with its new Christmas Red, White and Blue sales events.
The dramatic changes and hugely varied retailer approaches to Black Friday promotions may eventually prove tiresome to shoppers. If tactics continue and Black Friday sales extend to the coming days, and weeks before and after Black Friday, there will be little meaning, excitement, or incentive, for shoppers to spend on the day at all.
Brand View Black Friday analysis
Today, Brand View will be providing an analysis of the headline deals of the major retailers, both in the US and UK. We’ll be reviewing how the later adopters of the event are competing with Amazon, who continues to dominate the event.
In the following week, we’ll be producing in-depth analysis for both UK and US markets, across various retailers on the day, including analysis of Amazon’s hourly lightning deals.
Also, keep an eye out for our review of Cyber Monday and Black Friday, which will compare how retailer’s Cyber Monday deals stack up against their Black Friday offerings.
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