Black Friday, which traditionally refers to the busiest shopping day of the year and falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving, can be considered one of the biggest days for a marketer. Most of us are probably familiar with the premise behind it - the day after Thanksgiving is considered the beginning of the holiday season, consumers start purchasing for the holiday, and thus companies compete for your business by offering ridiculous sales. Today though, consumers are no longer forced to endure long lines and large crowds in the actual stores and can take advantage of the same deals by purchasing online instead. And according to initial reports, this year was no different.
According to IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark Trends Report, online sales were up by 17.4% on Thanksgiving Day (note: many sales started on Thursday) and 20.7% on Black Friday compared to last year. According to the report, the surge in online sales was driven by iPad users. For example, in the tablet market, the iPad accounted for 88% of traffic, followed by the Nook and the Kindle. What's interesting about this is the consumer experience. Traditionally, the consumer was limited to the store or stores they physically visited - which were probably predetermined ahead of time based on proximity and the sales being offered. Now, with the help of smartphones, tablets, and yes, even computers, consumers can now set-up shop in their own homes and have multiple devices searching the web for the best deal. In my opinion, this presents a challenge for firms, specifically big retail stores. The goal of these big retail stores such as Target for example, is that you will buy a range of gifts in their store, and not just one item. For example, at Target you can buy clothes, a television, as well as other home goods. But at home, you may simply buy one item from Target, and buy the others from another store because it could be cheaper if shipping costs don't add up. I'm interested to see how firms used techniques such as "You might like this" or "Others who bought that, bought this" on their online stores to entire more sales from the same user.
If you're like me and didn't buy anything these past two days, don't worry - there's still time to take advantage of deals. There's "Small Business Saturday" and "Cyber Monday". I wonder why no one has taken Sunday yet? Perhaps we call it "Sucker Sunday" and we actually raise prices on people?!?!
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