So I spent Thanksgiving with my family in Indianapolis, IN. Here are a few random thoughts of my experiences…
Office Depot
- Parking lot pretty full 30 minutes to store opening
- Orderly process
- All Black Friday (BF) items were bunched up together in one single aisle that all BF shoppers were forced into.
- Most all other aisles closed
- Store manager announced on the in-store PA system that “If you are thinking about a paper or furniture order to come back after 12 PM today”
Best Buy
- Parking lot fairly empty
- No traffic
- No lines
- I overhear the store manager talking the quote that I took away was him lamenting that “this years Black Friday was a bust – the shoppers just didn’t show up”
Wal-Mart
- Crazy lines
- Nearly a repeat of the
- Maze approach to hiding BF items all across the store. For example, the Blue Ray DVDs were stuffed in the produce section
What was your’s like? Leave a comment..
ShopLocal, the leader in multi-channel shopping services, is reporting a 16 percent rise in traffic to top retailers’ online circular sites during Thanksgiving week as consumers prepared for their Black Friday shopping expeditions.
Consumers have cut their overall spending during the last two months as recession fears have grown. They have consistently expressed plans to spend less on holiday gifts, but retailers still attracted plenty of attention with extensive online marketing of their record-setting array of Black Friday deals.
Retailers expanded their Black Friday promotions by 21 percent, and began to display the promotions to consumers online as early as Sunday. The strategy proved fruitful, particularly for Department Stores and Mass Merchandisers, which saw traffic to their circular sites rise more than 30 percent compared to last year.
Consumer activity on the circular sites peaked on Wednesday at 9 a.m., then again on Thursday at 9 p.m. as consumers solidified their shopping plans for Friday. The Thursday night peak set an all-time record for circular site activity with just under 11 million page views in a single hour, surpassing the previous record which was also set at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
“We’ve seen continued growth in the use of the Internet by savvy consumers who use it to save themselves time and money by pre-planning their visits to local stores,” said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. “Especially in tough times like these, shoppers are mindful that online research can help them to stretch their budgets farther. That’s why online research and multi-channel advertising continue to grow every year. Consumers took advantage of a longer preview of the holiday shopping season and increased visibility into Black Friday deals, as retailers announced promotions earlier than ever, hoping to pull shoppers into their stores,” added Sharma.
While 51 percent of consumers plan on spending less during this holiday season, they are now finding themselves tempted by great Black Friday deals in some of the hottest categories, including name-brand laptops, HDTVs, and GPS systems. Overall, electronics and deep discounts on apparel received the most attention from consumers during the run-up to Black Friday, while deals on iPods received less attention than in the past. Notably absent from the deals that retailers offered are two of this year’s hottest products, the Wii Fit system and Elmo Live.
Posted on 28 November 2008 by Loch Rose
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Last week, we saw that retailers started to increase their offers to shoppers in November. That is to be expected, as is a peak surrounding Black Friday. The real question is just how far the retailers have decided to go. The answer turns out to be, farther than ever before.
Retailers are really pulling out the stops for Black Friday 2008, offering on average 21% more deals than in 2007:
Note the smaller-than-usual dip on the Sunday before Black Friday, and the stronger build through the following week. A closer look at the week leading up to Black Friday makes the gap even more obvious:
Some retailers are pushing much harder than others. Electronics, Office Supply, Department, Mass Merchandiser, and Specialty retailers are all presenting 50% or more offers than last year. Meanwhile, Food, Drug, and Home & Garden are staying on the sidelines, or even cutting back on their merchandising:
Black Friday this year greets shoppers with a record number of great offers, well merchandised and well communicated. Shoppers are certainly looking at the offers with interest, and we think that many will choose to take advantage of them. Black Friday is well positioned to be the high point as well as the official start of the holiday shopping season.
High Volume of Sales Offered Create Potential for Strong Consumer Activity on Black Friday
Retailers have increased Black Friday sale offers by 21% over last year according to ShopLocal. This traditionally strong shopping day could be as big as ever.
In the current economic conditions consumers are looking for deals, and retailers have clearly communicated to them that they will see the best deals on Black Friday. Not only have retailers offered a higher volume of promotions, there has been an unprecedented early release of Black Friday deals, with a majority of major retailers announcing early this week.
“This year’s Black Friday sales could be bigger than ever. Consumers will not only find great deals on gifts, but could make additional purchases on items for themselves or their homes to take advantage of the deals being offered,” said ShopLocal CEO Vikram Sharma. “Retailers are offering great value to consumers in a difficult season.”
With fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and pent-up consumer demand, retailers are greatly increasing the amount of products they are discounting and giving access to the consumer by making the promotions available before Black Friday. Retailers are doing a great job of using the Internet to promote their in-store deals and smart shoppers are visiting retailer sites to find the best deals before heading out to stores.
ShopLocal sites provide an indication of how some products will perform. Shoppers are showing strong interest in notebook computers from HP, Toshiba and Sony, HD TVs, the iPod Nano, GPS systems and men’s and women’s outerwear with discounts between 50% and 65%.
Posted on 26 November 2008 by Loch Rose
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Black Friday deals are legendary, but this year retailers are spending even more time and money to make sure that everybody knows about them in advance. Not content with waiting for the traditional Thanksgiving Day perusal of their circular offers, the retailers are pushing the offers out online as much as 5 days in advance.
ShopLocal hosts the online versions of the circulars for many top retailers, and so we can quantify just how much the retailers are doing this. It turns out that on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, 25% of the offers that retailers display in their online circulars will be previews of the Black Friday deals. That’s about double the percentage in 2006 and 2007, and reflects both the increasing importance to retailers of Black Friday as an event, and the importance of their online circulars as a way to reach shoppers and bring them into the store.
Not surprisingly, the highest percentage of posted but not yet active offers – i.e. deals that the shopper can read about but still can’t redeem – is during those two days before Black Friday.
Of course, this is all part of the whole Black Friday phenomenon. Retailers consider it risky to tell the shopper about a great deal, while simultaneously telling them that they have to wait to get it, because shoppers who decide that they want it right away are likely to go elsewhere. In fact, retailers normally want shoppers to be motivated to take immediate action: drive to the store and buy it, before the store runs out or the deal expires! But shoppers are prepared to wait for great deals on Black Friday, so Black Friday previews work.
Retailers are due to bring an unprecedented number of deals to shoppers on Black Friday this year, and they have previewed them for shoppers to an unprecedented degree. If the shoppers don’t respond, it won’t be because the retailers stinted in their efforts, but because of the increasing slowdown in the economy. As of now, Black Friday is shaping up to be the high point of the holiday selling season.
(4.50 out of 5)
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