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For decades, Black Friday has ushered in the holiday shopping season. He carries with him images of crowded and looted shops. Queues, crowds, the occasional scratches and fights. It is not necessarily for everyone, even in normal times, but it is a tradition for many.
Set The point of those discounts is to fill the stores with shoppers. This year, retailers are trying to devise ways to do just the opposite: keep customers on the sidewalk or in their homes, or attract them at different times of the month other than Nov. 27.
Doing so responds to customer needs and is most responsible as the coronavirus outbreak reaches terrifying new heights, with more than 100,000 new cases per day as of this writing, and with deaths and hospitalizations on the rise.
“The challenge of how to get sales closer to typical holiday seasons while protecting themselves and their customers is complicated,” said Steve Horwitz, professor of economics at Ball State University, in emailed comments. . “No company can afford to be the site of a high-profile event, so they have every reason to try to keep everyone safe.”
However, make no mistake. Black Friday is still happening this year. According to Numerator, 34% of surveyed consumers planned to shop in stores on Black Friday this year, while 90% planned to shop online.
According to data from Adobe, consumer spending began to rebound after the election and is expected to increase during the sales holidays.
“Despite the slowdown in consumer spending, as election results unfolded, there are enough days of major purchases left to make up lost ground,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights, in comments sent by email. “Despite the previous discounts, the days that include Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have great staying power and are expected to set new records, with growth in the [35% to 40%] rank.”
As retailers and consumers alike navigate the pandemic, almost every aspect of Black Friday is being redesigned this year. These changes can be exceptional – extreme changes made to accommodate an extreme year. Others, customers, and retailers may find that they like it better than the old traditions of flooding stores in the early hours of the morning after Thanksgiving.
Here’s a look at some of the things that are different this year:
1. Black Friday started online a while ago
Amazon began the barrage of online sales in mid-October. After delaying its summer Prime Day event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the e-commerce giant moved it to mid-October. Walmart, Target and a host of other retailers, as has become a tradition, linked their own online discount bonanzas to Amazon’s Prime Day.
There’s a reason for that. About 43% of consumers surveyed said they planned to start holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, up from 33.7% last year, according to JLL Annual Vacation Report. Walmart said in early fall that 87% of its customers planned to search for deals earlier this year than in previous years, according to its data.
Prime Day and its companions were a way to capture some of those sales. And it worked. Online sales increased 50% during the week of October 11-17, according to Deloitte. Online offerings also captured customers who switched to e-commerce this year due to the pandemic. According to NPD Group, 51% of surveyed consumers said they will change most of your online gift shopping due to COVID-19. According to Numerator, October Prime Day gave Amazon “a jump” in holiday shopping dollars this year.
2. Black Friday sales in stores last all month.
This year, Walmart essentially created three black fridays, each of which begins online several days prior to its launch in stores. The retail giant called this tiered discount scheme “Black Friday Deals by the day.” Target launched a similar campaign They distribute discounts at separate sale events through November.
“By extending the holiday shopping season for more than two months, they are engaging in a kind of social distancing over time.”
Steve Horwitz
Professor of Economics, Ball State University
As with so much this year, much of the retail world followed the lead of the big players. Kohl’s announced previous agreements and emphasized his safety precautions, like old navy did and others. Dollar General planned a pre-holiday event for November 13 with discounts on all categories of gifts in their stores.
The above offers are a way to get to know consumers about how they plan to shop this year, sooner, away from the crowds, while managing other consumers at the same time. Tiered sales are also a way to use carrots to nudge other customers who aren’t planning to expand their purchases to do so, rather than packing in stores for Black Friday.
“By extending the holiday shopping season for more than two months, they are engaging in a kind of social distancing over time,” Horwitz said.
But consumers still think they will get the best deals on traditional Black Friday. According to the NPD Group, 20% of consumers said that I expected the best deals on Black Friday, the most of any other holiday sales event, with Prime Day a close competitor at 18%. The number of those planning to start their holiday shopping on Black Friday was 14%, slightly less than last year, according to NPD.
3. The Black Friday creep has reversed, for now
After more than three decades of being open on Thanksgiving, Walmart chose to close for the holidays this year. Target too, For the first time in years. So did Kohl’s, Old Navy, Macy’s and others.
Walmart framed the decision around its employees, in what has been an incredibly stressful year for front-line retail employees amid the pandemic. “We know this has been a difficult year and our associates have stepped up,” said John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart US, in a statement when the decision was announced. “We hope you have a special Thanksgiving at home with your loved ones.”
It marks the reversal, or at least a one-year speed bump, in a trend toward opening on Thanksgiving, which most consumers have said they don’t even want. (But obviously some consumers have been shopping on Thanksgiving – otherwise, retailers would have kept their doors closed the entire time.) So far this year, it’s mostly supermarkets, drug stores, and dollar stores. open on holidays, according to BestBlackFriday.com.
Retailers planning to close are still encouraging consumers to shop online on Thanksgiving. And many retailers have highlighted their in-store and curbside pick-up options so purchases made on Thanksgiving can be picked up on Black Friday.
4. Black Friday, curbside style
Speaking of curbside pickup, that sales channel has exploded this year. In general, retailers have highlighted the sidewalk as an option for shop-wary customers this fall.
Channel mixing started a long time ago, but the pandemic has dramatically accelerated the growth of in-store pickup in 2020. Sales through Target’s same-day services, including its Drive Up and Order Pick Up options, grew more than 270% in a single quarter this year. Others have also seen similar growth in digital and omnichannel sales.
For its tiered Black Friday events, Walmart offered, as a new feature, contactless van on the sidewalk for purchases made online.
According to data from the JLL survey, just under 24% of consumers plan to order online and pick up at the curb for holiday shopping this year, a category the company did not measure last year as “not a big trend “in 2019. Other 29% plan to order online and pick up in stores, up from 23.5% last year.
5. Safety = Black Friday success
Despite the pandemic, consumers still plan to shop in stores during Black Friday and the holiday season in general. According to the JLL survey data, 49.4% said they plan to shop in stores during the season, about two and a half points less than last year, but still a sizable chunk. However, that does not mean that consumers are not concerned about safety.
About 66% of consumers said that more likely to visit stores with strict health precautions, such as mask requirements, occupancy limits, contact barriers and one-way aisles, according to survey data released by the International Council of Shopping Centers in October. Meanwhile, more than 55% of customers surveyed said that COVID-19 topped their list of concerns about holiday shopping, and 88% said security procedures related to the pandemic are important for in-store purchases, according to a report from PwC.
Retailers that can address those concerns and make consumers feel secure are ready to win the holidays and the shopping season in general. As an example, Target, which has made huge sales gains during the pandemic, has new contactless payment options added before Black Friday. It also added a feature to its website that notifies customers if there are lines at stores due to occupancy limits that Target launched in April.
