Black Friday spreads its wings
Retailers around the globe woo bargain-hunting shoppers with special one-day deals
It was an all-too-familiar Black Friday scene.
Moments after the retailer opened its doors just after midnight on the big day, a crush of bargain-hunters poured in, jostling with one another and in some cases throwing punches in a bid to secure deeply discounted electronics.
Chaotic to be sure, except this wasn’t happening at a Best Buy in Buffalo. The Black Friday mayhem was playing out at a Tesco in Manchester, England, whose deputy chief constable called shopper behaviour “appalling.”
Perhaps, but Simon Dornan, a spokesperson for Dixons Carphone (a U.K. retailer not connected to Tesco), says his company has welcomed the notorious retail holiday with open arms.
“We love Black Friday,” he says, noting that the 2014 event became the single biggest day of trading in the history of its Currys PC World chain. “Overnight we had a new, amazing spike in our annual trading pattern.”
Historically an American retail holiday, Black Friday has been gaining momentum worldwide. It’s spread to Canada, where both U.S. and domestic retailers have a plethora of bargain hunters well-versed in the ins and outs of the epic American retail event after years of cross-border excursions. It’s been enthusiastically embraced in the U.K., too, since being reportedly introduced by Amazon in 2010. In Canada and the U.K., Black Friday’s rise has stolen thunder from Boxing Day, the traditional bargain-shopping holiday.
Thanks in large part to the power of e-commerce and ease of online shopping, Black Friday has inspired copycat events in nations farther afield, including China, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, France and Spain.
“Americans are globally made fun of for our culture of consumerism and the stampedes and fights,” says Lily Varon, a retail analyst with Forrester in Boston. “But it’s definitely helped create awareness of the holiday.”
Its global appeal isn’t hard to decipher: No matter where you live in the world, Varon says, “everyone loves the feeling that they’re getting a good deal.”
In Brazil, hundreds of retailers offer discounts, recording online sales the day of that were 12 times higher than off-peak-season levels, according to online advertising firm Criteo.
Black Friday has also come to Sweden, Russia and Spain, where Criteo notes it’s become the “peak of the holiday season.” Even in France, where the bargain day isn’t really a thing, online retailers that offered deals saw an 84-per-cent sales spike in 2014.
In China, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group created a retail event that dwarfs Black Friday. In 2009, it launched the 11.11 shopping festival, which falls on Nov. 11, the world’s largest 24-hour online shopping event. The festival — which coincides with Singles’ Day, a Chinese folk holiday for young people to celebrate their independence — generated $14.45 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2015, up 40 per cent from $9.3 billion in 2014. That far surpasses the U.S. online shopping tallies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, which totalled a mere $3.07 billion. It’s evidence of a remarkable uptick in online shopping among Chinese consumers, particularly the country’s booming middle-class population.
Online shopping has been key to Black Friday’s global spread, as well.
In the U.K., while retailers see plenty of in-store, door-crashing action on Black Friday, the event is particularly lucrative for e-commerce channels. Experian Marketing Services-IMRG notes that shoppers there spent $1.87 billion online on Black Friday in 2015, 36 per cent more than the year before.
U.K. retailer Argos received 12 million web visits and saw 18 transactions a second on Black Friday last year. It was Argos’ biggest day ever for digital orders, according to spokesperson Jon Dale, “and we expect Black Friday to be a big event for retail again this year.”
While global retailers have adopted Black Friday, Varon at Forrester notes they’re also differing slightly in their approach. “They’re harnessing the omni-channel element,” catering to consumers through mobile devices and encouraging online purchases with in-store pick-up, helping to avoid the logistics headaches, bottlenecks and supply issues that can plague peak shopping days.
They’re also seeking to avoid “flat out, door-buster, all-in” U.S.-style promotions, she says, and are,becoming savvier about how they’re converting and driving sales. This could mean time-sensitive “flash sales” or deals on select product lines, or for loyalty members only.