USA Today this morning has a story about how Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving that has served as the traditional beginning of the end-of-year holiday shopping season - "has lost some of its mojo."
The argument seems to be that a) in-store traffic and sales are down on Black Friday over the last couple of years, while b) online sales on that day are up, though not the equal of what now is called Cyber Monday.
While promotions for Black Friday and overall holiday sales have already begun, and it "remains a critical promotional event particularly for traditional retailers who bring in the lion's share of their revenue from in-store, rather than online, purchases," holiday sales seem to spread out over a longer period of time.
USA Today writes that "nearly two-thirds of consumers indicated they will begin holiday shopping before the start of Black Friday week, while 29% will have completed most of it by then, according to consultancy PwC's holiday forecast. And a Deloitte holiday survey found that 52% of respondents say they won’t rely on Black Friday as much this year as they used to, up from 47% in 2014."
The argument seems to be that a) in-store traffic and sales are down on Black Friday over the last couple of years, while b) online sales on that day are up, though not the equal of what now is called Cyber Monday.
While promotions for Black Friday and overall holiday sales have already begun, and it "remains a critical promotional event particularly for traditional retailers who bring in the lion's share of their revenue from in-store, rather than online, purchases," holiday sales seem to spread out over a longer period of time.
USA Today writes that "nearly two-thirds of consumers indicated they will begin holiday shopping before the start of Black Friday week, while 29% will have completed most of it by then, according to consultancy PwC's holiday forecast. And a Deloitte holiday survey found that 52% of respondents say they won’t rely on Black Friday as much this year as they used to, up from 47% in 2014."
- KC's View:
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Call me crazy, but I think that anything that moves the culture away from a situation in which people will step on each other to save five bucks on a video game probably is a good thing. Black Friday isn't dead yet, and not even on life support ... but the trend clearly is moving to it being a less intense experience.
