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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Black Friday Is Now An Online-First Shopping Holiday


All eyes in retail are on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), the biggest shopping events of the season. According to a Morning Consult survey, Sixty-two percent of consumers said they wait for these big seasonal sales to do their holiday shopping. However, allegiance to a specific shopping weekend is likely to wane, as more than half of consumers believe the same deals will be available throughout the holiday shopping season. This year’s extra-early promotions, designed to spur consumers to get ahead of supply chain challenges, will only contribute to that perception.

More consumers plan to shop on Black Friday this year than in 2020, but the lion’s share of these shoppers — 78 percent — will do their deal-hunting online. Gen Z and millennial consumers are most likely to participate overall and substantially more likely to shop online.

Moreover, a plurality of consumers believe that the best Black Friday deals are found online, so the post-Thanksgiving weekend shopping can be done from the comfort of Mom’s sofa with leftover pumpkin pie nearby. For online-first Cyber Monday, which has faded by comparison thanks to fewer consumers relying on their workplaces’ high-speed internet to browse for deals, shopping plans follow a similar generational trend, but just half of Gen Z and millennial shoppers will participate.









Crowded stores, early hours and drawn-out holiday deals all contribute to the decline of Black Friday as a singular event

Most consumers, and especially baby boomers and Gen Xers, think dealing with crowded stores is not worth it. These older generations are less likely overall to participate in BFCM shopping. Meanwhile, Gen Z and millennials believe that getting to stores or going online early is critical to snagging the best deals. Across the board though, consumers feel like the sprawl of deals from pre-Halloween to New Year’s Day means the BFCM weekend isn’t all that special.

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