Did Online Shopping Ruin Black Friday?

Picture this: It’s 2012. You’re bundled up in your winter coat, waiting outside of a Walmart. It’s 4 AM, and your stomach is still full from the Thanksgiving dinner you had just a few hours prior. You have your heart set on a new flat-screen TV, which Walmart has on sale for Black Friday, and you’re surrounded by people who want the exact same thing. You’re clutching a flier that advertised the sale, covered in red sharpie, circling the items with the best deals. This day marks the start of the holiday shopping season, and you’re ready to fight your way through the stampede of shoppers to get your gifts.

These days, Black Friday feels more like a busy day at the mall. But why would you shop in a store, when you can enjoy the sales from the comfort of your own home? In recent years, Black Friday has extended, becoming days-long sales rather than being exclusive to just one day. This, combined with other sale days, like Amazon Prime Day, have decreased the sentiment of Black Friday and made it more difficult to mark the start of holiday shopping.

So, how can your business’ marketing strategy introduce shoppers to the holiday season? First, let’s travel back in time to see how Black Friday made an impact.

Want to skip the history and learn more about holiday marketing strategies? Click here!

In the 1950s, Philadelphia police began using the term “Black Friday” to describe the mayhem that occurred on the day after Thanksgiving, when shoppers and tourists filled the city before the Army-Navy football game held annually on the following Saturday. The term began to catch on, and in the 1980s, retailers transformed it from negative connotations to positive.

As the story goes, retailers claimed that the term represented the spike in sales that would happen the day after Thanksgiving, “in the red” profits going “into the black.”

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Black Friday rose in popularity and people began lining up in the early hours of the morning just to get a chance to shop the greatest sales of the year. Take this 2009 Toys-R-Us newspaper advertisement as an example. Most of the items listed are more than 50% off, and one toy, a FURREAL FRIENDS S’mores Pony, is $200 off of its original sale price of $299. That toy alone was one-third of its regular price. These deals inspired people to begin their holiday shopping, purchasing the majority of their gifts on this day in November. In a 2015 survey from the National Retail Federation, 77.6% of people polled had at least started their holiday shopping before November 28 (the Saturday following Black Friday).

Black Friday wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. These types of deals brought out a different side of people. It could often get dangerous, leading to fights, intense crowds, and extreme injuries.

But in the mid-2010s, people started to expect online deals to be as exclusive as in-store Black Friday deals. Even though Cyber Monday already existed, coined by the National Retail Foundation in 2005, people wanted more. The drastic decline in shopping malls in the United States, the rise of online shopping, and the at-home-isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic left Black Friday, as we knew it, in the dust.

Black Friday hasn’t disappeared, but it looks drastically different. 

Holiday promotions and Black Friday sales start earlier every year. The pandemic forced consumers to purchase gifts earlier due to supply chain issues and shipping delays, and they got used to completing their lists early. Insider Intelligence reported that over half of U.S. consumers started shopping before November.

Black Friday is no longer a singular day, but a several-week long event. Retailers continue to sell discounted items, but the deals aren’t as drastic and the day-after-Thanksgiving is not the “Biggest Shopping Day of the Year” like it used to be. Plus, with 43% of Americans favoring online shopping to in-store browsing, you’re unlikely to encounter the stampede of people found in Black Fridays passed.

This doesn’t mean Black Friday should be pushed to the side. “Black Friday” is a term people recognize, and many businesses use it to advertise a sale on products or services. To determine if a Black Friday sale makes sense for your business, it’s important to consider your goals and needs. If you’re concerned that Black Friday doesn’t align with your brand’s values, could isolate loyal customers, or would significantly decrease profit, see what other marketing strategies you can employ instead.

Without a Black Friday strategy, you need another way to get customers into the holiday shopping spirit. Let your customers know you’re prepared for them to use your business to buy all of their gifts.

Who doesn’t love holiday content? Post holiday-specific products, activities you’re doing with team members, and user-generated content to show your audience what they’re missing.

There’s always one person in your life who you struggle to buy gifts for, whether it be a partner, a friend, or a family member. Sometimes, you have to resort to Google and search for gifts that best fit their demographics. Creating gift guides to post on your blog and share on social media will build trust with your audience. You’re giving them gift ideas, and they’re considering purchasing your products. It’s a win-win!

One day with great deals is more valuable than an entire week where everyone is doing the exact same thing. Separating your deals from others will set you apart, and combining your deals into one day will put the pressure on customers to make the purchase. This is a great time to pull in email marketing and digital advertising strategies! Why? Everyone else is employing these strategies, so you need to find a way to cut through the noise. 

Black Friday has drastically changed since its inception. It’s important that you stay up-to-date with recent trends and consider your individual business’ needs while recognizing the power that the shopping holiday holds. Black Friday is just around the corner, but there are many other strategies you can use to get your customers ready to shop for their holiday gifts.