Black Friday, the After Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday have traditionally been the time period where retailers make their hay and get in the black for the year. But lately many retailers have tried to pull the Black Friday magic forward by having early Black Friday sales in the weeks leading up to the actual day. And it has been very successful for many of them.
Just as we've trained consumers to wait for major holidays to get bigger discounts, we have now trained them to expect big discounts in the weeks leading up to Black Friday. A recent study by Market Track found that, in a nationwide survey of 1000 consumers, 27% plan to have most of their holiday shopping done before November and nearly half of them plan to have most of their holiday shopping done before Thanksgiving. So, if you're waiting to do your big holiday push after Thanksgiving, you may be missing half of the market!
This doesn't mean you shouldn't do a big push for Black Friday/After Thanksgiving time period, but you can't just wait until then either. The traditional time period should still see plenty of play. You just need to start offering bigger discounts and finance offers earlier than in previous years or you'll end up letting someone else scoop up part of your market – losing both sales and market share.
The study also indicates that once again, more and more consumers plan to do more shopping online – many of those who wait until after Thanksgiving will wait for Cyber Monday to see what deals will be available. But, even if you don't offer eCommerce, you need to make sure your best pricing for the holidays is listed on your site. The study showed that 73% of consumers intend to research prices online before making their in-store purchases.
With increased competition hitting the consumers earlier each year, retailers need to spread their retail marketing out over a longer holiday period – both in terms of marketing dollars and magnitude of offers. Because if you don't, someone else will take a good number of your customers out of the market before you get there.
Mike McClure – missing the days when holidays fell where they were supposed to.
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Learn something new everyday. Thank you for writing this.
You’re welcome. Thanks for the comment
I can’t wait for cyber monday!!!! I want to change my look. I’m so bored with my outfits and all that. I have a small jewelry business and I feel that I’ll make a bit of money this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Well I hope so!