Black Friday originated in the US and is the colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving, where many retailers and online stores offer large discounts and highly promoted sales on their products and stock. The concept has now taken off across the world and is entertained widely by shoppers and retailers in the UK. It provides an opportunity to save money on Christmas gifts and grab some unmissable offers.
Last year’s Black Friday played out a little differently, will this year be the same?
Black Friday 2020
Last year was an unprecedented year, causing an unprecedented Black Friday. Fashion retailers took the concept of Black Friday sales and ran with it, extending the single day-long sale to a month-long event, referring to it as ‘Black November’. The majority of brands had a mass of excess stock to shift from the year and still had sales targets to hit for the end of the year; the only way to do that was to introduce larger discounts and earlier on...
The continuing pandemic and UK lockdown meant that Black Friday was a purely online event, with an insane competition between brands on the lowest price. Some brands launched their Black Friday discounts as early as the first of November, offering up to 75% off selected products or even blanket discounts across the whole store. According to Lovethesales.com, 30% more retailers offered deals earlier compared to the sales in 2019. Amazon launched its Black Friday offers on the 26th of October, with the tagline ‘Shop early, relax later’.
Global management consultancy, McKinsey & Company, predicted that Black Friday would overtake the Boxing Day sales as the most popular sales shopping event in 2020 in the UK for the first time ever.
Last year, everyone was at home and online and therefore had more time on their hands to shop and browse online, and retailers had the chance to finally clear the excess stock from the year. It was a match made in heaven, and some brands ran their discounts deeper than ever. PrettyLittleThing was offering up to 99% off their whole site with some items selling for as little as 8p, and ASOS promoted its ‘biggest Black Friday deal ever’ offering up to 70% off everything.
But will it be the same this year?
Black Friday 2021
This year, Black Friday falls on the 26th of November and will be back in physical stores as well as online. Shoppers may be disappointed this year compared to last year in regards to discounts as Black Friday deals seemed to have returned to the pre-pandemic level. However, many brands have already launched Black Friday discounts the week before with Amazon launching their Black Friday week today with deals on devices like Alexas and Firesticks. Many retailers have launched some discounts prior to the key date, but the majority seem to be holding off on releasing their significant deals until Black Friday.
Some experts believe that due to the nationwide lorry driver shortage and in the face of growing shipping costs, this will cause major delays to stock orders and many stores may face, or currently be facing, stocking issues for the sale event. Logistics experts predict that more brands and retailers will bypass this frenzy of discounts this year because of the huge disruption it causes to operations and the increased cost of hiring extra warehouse staff. On top of this, and after COP26, there is a push on the demand to consider the environmental impact of shopping, and Black Friday will only affect this more by importing more goods globally.
If you do decide to participate in Black Friday this year and bag yourself some bargains for Christmas, be quick as stock levels may be an issue.
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