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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.