Black Friday and target black Friday deals for the black week 2020

 

Black Friday vibes coming soon for the black week

Out of the many holidays celebrated, perhaps the one known most for the intense shopping sprees is Black Friday, the target Black Friday following Thanksgiving, which is, in 2021, the 27th of November. This black week or the black Friday holiday is well known in the US for the large amounts of bargain deals from shops and the ensuing mass of shoppers set on getting said deals. It also marks the start of the Christmas shopping season for retailers, especially in the USA.

The origins of the Black Friday

The term itself dates back to the early 60s, originating from Philadelphia in the US, where it was used to refer to the heavy pedestrian traffic on the day after Thanksgiving activity. This was the result of a football game between the navy and army academies located near the city. It was only in the 2000s that the term came to be widely associated with shopping. This is because of the sharp increase in sales, immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday, putting retailers and shops “in the black”, a term indicating financial stability or to gain profits.

 

Worldwide Reach of the target Black Friday

As of late, targetblack Friday has resulted in many deals and discounts being posted mainly in the US, but has started to spread worldwide, to mark the start of the Christmas shopping season albeit for different reasons.

 In the UK

For the UK, the the busiest shopping day was previously boxing day, and the term black Friday was used by the police for the Friday preceding Christmas. This was a result of many going out to drinking thus needing to increase the capacity of emergency services for the time. The event of known as “Black Friday shopping” came only in recent years when international American retailers in the UK, such as Amazon, employed sales in the same style as those in the States. Also, outdoor shopping is popular among people for branded outlets like reebok outlet, specially reebok sales, Adidas black Friday sales, Levi’s outlets, Nike, and for costumes Zara, H&M, M & S, Victoria Secrets stores. Other UK retailers followed suit and gradually the retail sales in November exceeded those in December, showing the shift from the traditional pattern of UK Christmas Shopping.

 In America and Canada

Due to the proximity and easy access to American shopping centers Canada started Black Friday deals of sales in order to stop people from crossing the border and partaking in American sales. Although Canada has black Friday sales to combat this issue, they aren’t as much of a bargain as American ones and the stronger Canadian dollar also prompts shoppers to cross the border for better deals.

The rest of the world

Other countries that observe Black Friday are; Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France, among others. However other countries like India, Japan and China have that have different seasonal shopping seasons so the Black Friday event isn’t as pronounced. Instead, they have their own events such as Diwali [India] and Singles day [China].

Although an increasing number of retailers worldwide are adopting this method of the Black Friday sales. This is in part due to the influence of Amazon and their regional marketplaces such as Amazon UK, Amazon Australia, and many more, implementing black Friday discounts via their online platform.

What Black Friday means for Retailers?

With the huge discounts and price cuts one must wonder, what’s in it for the sellers?

Well it depends. This is because the store will lose money if the product is sold at a lower price than the cost or selling at a price that could have otherwise been higher that the current selling price. Because of that reason, we can see People love to online shopping this season. Customers chase Amazon offers that especially target blackFriday, because it’s offers target black Friday and comparatively lesser than other months. And also, people search 24-hour supermarket near me, grocery shops near me to buy goods for low prices these days.

 However, stores count on the fact that the customer will purchase other products on the same visit thus netting an overall profit. This is because its would simply be easier to purchase that item in the initial store rather than going to another one. And thou some normally high-priced items may have very low or no profit margins, other low-priced items surely will have high markups (increased prices).

It also plays on psychology by offering low priced items along with overly high pieced ones. This is because a consumer will fell happy resisting the urge to buy the expensive item and instead buying the cheaper one. However, the cheaper item will have a higher profit margin. And by saving by switching to the cheaper item the customer is left with extra money to spend on more low-cost items for themselves albeit those with a higher price margin for the store. And so, it would appear to be a win win for both parties.

Nevertheless, it still is a calculated risk that stores are willing to take due to the seasonal and annual nature of the sale. This promotes the mentality that the customer won’t be able to get another deal similar to this during any other time of the year and therefore increasing the probability of sales.

 

Talking about the Shopping of Christmas Scene…

Further, since the Christmas shopping season is just starting a seller would like a consumer to purchase items at their shop rather than at a competitor’s. That is to say, a retailer would rather you cross out your shopping list at their own outlet as opposed to a competitor’s one. This increases revenue in that a greater volume of purchases are made. Additionally, sellers can have a positive outcome if they enter into a positive relationship with the customer, like selling a warranty, payment options with interest, and/or brand affinity. Even credit options are a great profit turner for retailers.

Price discrimination is another way that sellers use to make a profit. Here price discrimination refers to when, every person has different spending capabilities and so each person is willing to pay a different amount for the same product or service.

To better understand this let’s imagine two people, one who has a high income [ex.; bank manager] and another with, and opposingly, low income [ex. Bank clerk]. If they both desire a certain product the manager would be willing to pay more on a normal day with ease as opposed to buying at a lower price but having to go through the hassle of a crowded marketplace. However, the clerk cannot afford to do that and as such will try to buy it on a day such as the black Friday.

This means that the seller could sell a product at a higher normal price but have a discount, in such a way so that it would be a bit annoying to go through with, they could increase total maximum revenue.

We should also note that if Black Friday sales were employed more often through the year these affects would diminish thus the incentive of the sales, for sellers, would disappear.

 Disruption and Harm Caused by Crowds

It should be noted that with these very attractive offers, everyone would want a piece of it. This results in large crowds at stores and more often than not disputes have occurred between shoppers. Although mostly minor in scale and injuries, there have been cases where serious harm had been inflicted by shoppers. As such police and other emergency services are on high alert during this time.

 The Influence of the Internet, on Black Friday

The concept of black Friday sales mainly took traction in the 2010s. This was based on the idea that people would rather click and buy online at home, rather than wait in line early in the morning for a good deal. However, online deals aren’t as good as the ones in stores. Nevertheless, due to the recent pandemic retailers are moving some focus toward online sales. 

Separate to shopping online on target Black Friday there is another online shopping day, on the Monday immediately following the Black Friday which comes to be known as cyber Monday. This is mostly because shoppers are unable to find what they want or for other reasons cannot get it. As a result, the shop for it online the following Monday after the day’s activities. Overall online traffic has increased year over year, and this is something that Sellers will have to deal with especially given the current situation.

 Covid-19 and its implications on black Friday

Amid the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be reasonable to expect the intense and crowd drawing Black Friday shopping event to be canceled, but retailers still are going through with the sales. Albeit with a larger focus online amid fears of the virus spreading.

Further sellers are spreading out the duration of sales, thus, reducing the concentration of the number of people in shops and as a result being able to comply with building and crowd regulations. This is also supported in that, many shoppers would rather get their Christmas shopping done earlier this year.

Other measures such as making the wearing of masks required, only opening shops for the normal working day as opposed to extended hours employed traditionally, making pick up of packages available, and an increase in overall deals online. While sales volumes are expected to increase online, the converse is expected of physical sales.

In the end while Covid-19 hasn’t exactly canceled Black Friday, the traditional one that is so familiar with people is unlikely to happen. Sales and deals will shift online, and pickups and home deliveries will be encouraged. The total length of sales will increase spreading over the week or month. All for control over the pandemic and the safety of the population as a whole.