Black Friday is the name given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving, retailers offer impressive discounts in-store, the name derived from the volume of shoppers who queue up well in advance of them being open. This year Black Friday falls this Friday 29th November (although most retailers started on from 15th November). While Black Friday began in physical retail, online retailers saw an opportunity and created Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday which falls the Monday after Black Friday, it is purely an online affair. The only difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the buying experience. Black Friday is still the biggest day of the year for Brick-and-mortar retailers in the USA, although e-commerce has given rise to Cyber Monday, it hasn’t tainted the success of the in-store offers Black Friday has to offer.
Omnichannel Strategies
One of the main learnings we got from Black Friday & Cyber Monday in 2018 was that those with a a channel-agnostic year strategy prevailed. 89 million of the 165 million American shoppers spent both online and in-store. Though the number of online shoppers is increasing due to convenience and trend, there is almost an equal amount of people seeking the in-store experience.
Nowadays it’s not a choice of “online” vs “offline”. It’s both. Running parallel strategies that work symbiotically is the key to retailers competing with online-only giants like Amazon.
Importance of Personalization
Kantar’s ShopperScape® survey indicates that 21% of shoppers are interested in all Black Friday deals regardless of what is on their shopping list. This huge increase in footfall for customers who are on the lookout for a bargain is a prime example of the important role in-store personalization can play to increase basket value.
Black Friday is notorious for frantic, on edge shoppers simply looking for the next bargain, but if nearly 1/4 of the people entering the store are open-minded about their purchasing. Last year shoppers spent nearly three times more in physical shops than on a normal day. By adding a personalization element to the shopping, the uplift in sales would be massive.
It’s cutting it too close this year to implement a personalization platform, but make sure you are prepared for next year. We’d be more than happy to have a chat. Get In touch!
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