With UK consumers predicted to spend in excess of £1 billion on Black Friday – which falls on November 27th – it’s easy to see why retailers are keen to capitalise on this, but the reality is that running a pre-Christmas flash sale just because everybody else is could do your business more harm than good. Retailers are set to slash prices and offer awesome promotions in order to entice consumers to do their Christmas shopping early. With Black Friday – the traditional American kick-off to the holiday shopping season – happening this weekend, the 100-plus stores within the open-air mall will be hosting a number of sales, all aimed at keeping Canadian shopping dollars here in Canada. Cameron said retail sales are up around six per cent this year.
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In the USA, the last Thursday in November is a national holiday – Thanksgiving – and many offices are also closed on the Friday, giving shoppers an opportunity to shop.
“Most of the newer mobile payments systems use a technique known as tokenization to avoid having to transmit users’ real credit card numbers, which helps security enormously”, Nicko van Someren, CTO of Good Technology, told Retail Dive earlier this year.
Moir is an Operations Manager with Best Buy.
“What what we saw a year ago for the first time was that Black Friday sales on that day, in terms of total dollar volume at our merchants, exceeded total dollar volume on Boxing Day for the first time, which is pretty fantastic”.
The poll of more than 1,000 Canadians also revealed 68 per cent planned to shop online through Canadian websites on Cyber Monday, while 42 per cent said they’d do so through USA sites – a decrease of 18 per cent. Meanwhile, in Brazil previous year saw Black Friday sales of £197.91 million.
But for many, it has never really lived up to the hype of Black Friday south of the border.
People between 18 and 34 are the group most likely to buy from US retailers online or shop in the USA, according to the UPS survey.
Gallagher said: “It may be quiet on the high street today, but that does not mean consumers are not buying in force this Black Friday”.
Retailers in Canada, recognizing that customers here don’t have the same luxury, are spreading their sales over a few days or more, said Larrea.
Peak times in retail are peak times for theft, even in stores, and that realization should carry over to e-commerce, says Neuburger. It’s another day of discounts and deals that you can’t wait to take advantage of on items you want.
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The fact that retailers and delivery companies were apparently able to absorb the increased demand reflects the preparation for the sales.
