WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY?
Black Friday is one of the biggest occasions for people living abroad that was set up for sale purposes on food, clothes, and other items. It happens on Friday that comes right after Thanksgiving. The sale begins even before Thanksgiving leftovers are finished and becomes one of the biggest Christmas shopping events every year. The Black Friday sale usually falls between the dates 23 to 29 November.
This year the Black Friday sale is going to be on 27th November 2020. People have started preparing for it beforehand. The day of the sale is an official holiday for all the employees except the ones that are working in the shopping retailers because the sale is all about shopping stores, food, etc. People of the U.S. celebrate it like a festival and go out with their families on this beautiful day.
WHERE DID THE ‘BLACK FRIDAY’ TERM INITIALLY ORIGINATE FROM?
If you talk about the overall scenario, then the term Black Friday originated in the U.S. in the 1960s. To be more specific, it was first created and named in the city of Philadelphia. In the 1960s, the police of Philadelphia city noticed a crowd in the street on this day and many bikers were seen with their motorbikes clogging the streets, this made them name it ‘Black Friday’.
And if we look at it from the non-retailing aspect, it also refers to a financial crisis that was faced by the stock market in 1869 due to the gold spectators who destroyed the markets which in return drowned all the stocks. This also contributed to the origination of the term ‘Black Friday’.
WHY IS THE DAY TERMED AS ‘BLACK FRIDAY’?
The term started in the 1960s, both retailing and non-retailing sense. The day marks the start of Christmas shopping especially and other festivals. The sale is set off on Friday after Thanksgiving every year in November, so the term Friday came from there.
Now moving on to the ‘black’ part of the ‘black Friday’ term which also has a solid and significant reason behind it.
So basically it indicates the shift of ‘red’ to ‘black’ for retailers. In the retailing community, red ink was considered as the color of loss. Whereas the ‘black’ was said to be the color of profit.
So this all started from this concept and now both the terms black and Friday have been combined and the day is always termed as Black Friday. It is one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year profiting many retail as well as food companies.
WHY IS THE BLACK FRIDAY SALE SO POPULAR?
Well, who doesn’t like buying things at discounted prices? Everyone does! This is the reason why people wait all year long for this sale as it is very profitable for them as well as the retailers. The retailers noticed that the people used to gather a lot on these kinds of sales and that they can profit a lot through it so they started putting sales online even on the day of Thanksgiving and most of them open their stores on Black Friday in the afternoon and put great sale packages on all the products that attract all the shoppers.
Sometimes the retailers do not profit as much as they want to because of the low prices but they still manage to earn more than they do on normal days when people do not shop as much as they do on Blessed Friday.
All the stores put mind-wobbling deals and sales on their products and to promote them, some of the retailers start putting ads about the sale on the day of Thanksgiving to keep the customers posted and so that they can get time to decide what they want to buy and what not before the actual sale begins. Whereas, some of them wait till the end to post ads for the announcement to maintain the curiosity.
In this time of the ongoing pandemic, people prefer to shop online rather than rushing to the stores like before and bumping into each other or fighting over the stuff to get your hands on your favorite deal before anyone else gets it.
The Black Friday sale is best in this way as it will put amazing deals online so you can shop online easily and find all the stuff that is available in the stores. This whole situation made this day extra popular and people still shop like crazy on this specific day, even more than those time to time Christmas sales.
THE BLACK FRIDAY STATISTICS ACCORDING TO THE NRF AND ADOBE ANALYTICS:
We don’t know about the analytics this year yet as the sale hasn’t started yet ut let’s have a look into the great sales that happened in the past few years. The numbers are huge and they have been increasing year to year.
Although many sale events take place around this time of Thanksgiving and other holidays 61% of the people who shop at Thanksgiving said that they are planning to shop on Blessed Friday. These analytics have been researched and put up by Adobe analytics and NRF. Let’s look into the previous Black Friday sale statistics.
- According to the NRF source, about 189.6 million people shopped in the U.S. in the 2019 Black Friday sale which was 14% more than the 2018 (165.8 million shoppers) and 2017 (174.6 million shoppers).
- The shoppers spent almost $361.90 in 2019 on the sale, according to the NRF source which was more than all the previous Black Friday sales that happened in 2018, 2017, and 2016.
- 2018 ~ $313.29
- 2017 ~ $335.47
- 2016 ~ $289.19
- According to Adobe Analytics, about $11.9 billion was spent on online shopping on the Black Friday and Thanksgiving sale combined in 2019 which was 20.2% more than the money spent in 2018 on the same day.
- Black Friday Sale, 2019 ($7.5 billion)
- Thanksgiving Sale, 2019 ($4.4 billion)
- The next analysis by Adobe Analytics is regarding the year 2018. In 2018, the shoppers spent a total of $9.9 billion on online shopping which was 19.7% more than money shoppers spent in 2017.
- Black Friday Sale, 2018 ($6.2 billion)
- Thanksgiving Sale, 2018 ($3.7 billion)
- In 2017, the shoppers spend a total of $7.9 billion in online sales according to Adobe Analytics which was about 17.9% more than that spent in 2016 on the same day.
- Black Friday Sale, 2017 ($5.03 billion)
- Thanksgiving Sale, 2017 ($2.87 billion)
TOPMOST SOLD PRODUCTS OF BLESSED FRIDAY 2018-2019 (SOURCES~ ADOBE ANALYTICS, BLACKFRIDAY.COM, HITWISE):
People usually put a hold on all the shopping they want to do so that they can buy the same stuff at half price rather than spending a fortune on it and Black Friday sale is one of the best days to do so because you can find all your favorite products, be it electronics, clothes, shoes, food items, or anything at half prices or even less than that so people don’t miss the opportunity to buy all their favorite products. According to the analysis, the products that became top sellers of 2018 and 2019 are;
BLACK FRIDAY (2019):
- According to Adobe Analytics, the top-selling products of 2019 are;
- Frozen 2 toys
- L.O.L. Surprise toys
- Paw Patrol toys
- As per online shopping is concerned, the products that people bought the most online from Amazon in 2019 on Black Friday are;
- Apple AirPods
- Fire TV Stick 4K
- Echo Show 5
- Echo Dot (3rd Gen.)
- According to the 2019 analysis, the buyers looking for specific deals to buy on Black Friday. These deals included;
- Clothes (41%)
- Home goods/Appliances (38%)
- Electronics (32%)
- Tech and home gadgets (30%)
- Toys (25%)
- Traveling packages (12%)
BLESSED FRIDAY (2018):
- According to the 2018 analysis, the deals that were searched and purchased most by the consumers include;
- Clothes (23%)
- Tech (22%)
- Toys (18%)
- Other gadgets (16%)
- Gift cards (12%)
- Traveling packages (9%)
MOST POPULAR BLACK FRIDAY RETAILERS (SOURCE~ HITWISE):
Now let’s talk about the most popular shopping stores that have been visited and used the most by the buyers or consumers for shopping on the Blessed Friday sale. Although many retailers are among the top of the list of the most visited retailers, two of them made their mark in 2019 and 2018 and were the top pick of people for online shopping.
- Amazon
- Walmart
AMAZON:
The statistics of online shopping people did from Amazon in 2019, 2018, and 2017 are;
- 2019:
Top retailer of 2019 on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday sale.
- 2018:
- Thanksgiving Sale (47.8% online transactions)
- Black Friday Sale (56.8% online transactions)
- 2017:
- Thanksgiving Sale (45.1% online transactions)
- Black Friday Sale (54.9% online transactions)
WALMART:
Now let’s look into the statistics of Walmart that are found by the ‘Hitwise’ source.
- 2019:
It was the second-highest retailer of 2019.
- 2018:
- Thanksgiving Sale (12% online transactions)
- Black Friday Sale (8.4% online transactions)
- 2017:
- Thanksgiving Sale (13.9% online transactions)
- Black Friday Sale (8.8% online transactions)
OTHER POPULAR STORES:
There are many other stores that people love to buy their things from on Blessed Friday as they have many products to offer including clothing, electronics, gadgets, toys, etc. It’s like an ALL IN ONE type of situation. Some of these popular and amazing stores that are most visited by the consumers are;
- Macy’s
- Kohl’s
- Target
- Belk
- Shopko
- New York and Company
- Stage
- Fred Meyer, etc.
HAPPY SHOPPING!
This was the history of the Blessed Friday sale and facts, figures, and statistics about it that were gathered from different sources. The Black Friday sale of 2020 is scheduled to happen today on 27th November 2020. Don’t delay and go buy all your favorite products online or from the stores. You will see a lot of coupons and gift cards along with the sale itself so avail it as much as you can and enjoy your shopping experience.
Which is your favorite store to shop for on the Black Friday sale?
