Black Friday weekend is retail's Super Bowl.
Retailers prepare all year for these critical days where they count on big sales numbers to drive a successful holiday shopping season. And for the many retailers entering the season with fresh memories of disappointing sales in recent quarters, the next week of shopping is even more important.
To help retailers navigate this hectic shopping weekend, Retail Dive has compiled a go-to guide with trends to watch, store opening times for the biggest players, and Twitter accounts to check out as the weekend unfolds in real-time. Be sure to check out Retail Dive's homepage and Twitter feed for the latest news on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as we will be reporting initial sales numbers on Friday.
Three trends to watch
1. Is Black Friday dead?
Many will be watching initial sales during Thanksgiving and Black Friday to gauge whether Black Friday is losing its importance as the most important shopping day of the year.
While the National Retail Federation announced last week that 58.7% of shoppers said they “definitely will” or “may” shop on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the two days that follow, many are saying that the holiday has lost its luster for shoppers, thanks in part to sales stretching out to the days before and after the event.
In fact, 79% of shoppers told BestBlackFriday.com that they don’t enjoy shopping on Black Friday, while 47% even think that retailers should not be open on Thanksgiving at all.
This year’s Black Friday (and Thanksgiving) sales will help retailers and analysts determine if Black Friday is still here to stay—or if it will diminish in importance in the coming years.
2. Shopping moves online
While the significance of Black Friday for stores may be in question, online shopping is poised for a strong Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday.
Deloitte predicts that this year online shopping on Black Friday will actually surpass online shopping on Cyber Monday for the first time, with 66% of those planning to shop online during the weekend, compared to just 52% of shoppers on Cyber Monday.
In the past, retailers have sometimes been caught offguard by online traffic—especially coming from mobile devices—leading to site crashes that angered customers and cost the retailers. Now more than ever, retailers are preparing their sites for the online traffic they might encounter to avoid these blunders, especially during this crucial shopping day.
3. The growth of mobile
In the last 12 months, two major website crashes have been attributed to an unanticipated influx of mobile shoppers. Best Buy saw its website falter on Black Friday last year, while Target’s Lily Pulitzer launch was marred by a downed online site. Both of these incidents were met with backlash from customers on social media.
Beyond ensuring that their websites are completely mobile-optimized to avoid a crash, retailers are also using shoppers’ mobile phones to attract Black Friday sales, both in stores and online. Amazon will be offering 150 different deals exclusively through its mobile app beginning on Thanksgiving, while traditional retailers like Kmart, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Target have released different features on their mobile apps to alert shoppers of sales and help create holiday gift lists.
Keep an eye on mobile sales this Black Friday. If the estimates are correct, it will play — and continue to play — a growing and important part in holiday sales.
Store opening times
Wal-Mart: Open all day Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Black Friday deals start 6 p.m. Thanksgiving
Target: 6 p.m. Thanksgiving, online deals start Thanksgiving morning
Amazon: Launched ‘Holiday Deals’ Nov. 20
Macy’s: 6 p.m. Thanksgiving
Costco: 9 a.m. Friday
Best Buy: 5 p.m. Thanksgiving
REI: Closed Thanksgiving and Black Friday
5 Twitter accounts to watch
1. Kelsey Lindsey: Associate editor for Retail Dive
Why Amazon’s Black Friday could disrupt the retail holiday: https://t.co/UpVdsU6D7W via @RetailDive
— Kelsey Lindsey (@kelseyalindsey) November 19, 2015
2. Phil Wahba: Senior retail and consumer goods writer for Fortune
Meet the women who saved Best Buy @FortuneMagazine https://t.co/iClcSRzmbz read this to better understand $BBY turnaround, by @jenwieczner
— Phil Wahba (@philwahba) November 19, 2015
3. Sarah Halzack: National retail reporter for Washington Post
Where are consumers' heads at as we head into the holiday season? I think this basically sums it up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/AgRWVrS3Or
— Sarah Halzack (@sarahhalzack) November 23, 2015
4. Anne D’Innocenzio: National retail reporter for the AP
What are the top selling items state by state? Ebay is offering a map that offers a glimpse of what's popular https://t.co/hjRSy1i8Zv
— Anne D'Innocenzio (@ADInnocenzio) November 20, 2015
5. Sarah Nassauer: Retail reporter for the Wall Street Journal
Retailers get poor marks for their order online, pick-up in-store models: https://t.co/nkmhrgvZQH via @WSJ by @LorettaChao
— Sarah Nassauer (@SarahNassauer) November 5, 2015
Resources
As the weekend unfolds, Retail Dive will update our website and Twitter feed with the early results from Black Friday. Then, we'll be back on Monday to bring you our analysis of the big holiday shopping weekend and the first results from Cyber Monday.
In the meantime, here are several stories we've written ahead of the holiday shopping season, previewing the biggest trends, challenges, and opportunities that retailers are facing:
- The 'good' problem no one wants: How to avoid website crashes this holiday season
- 5 mistakes from Black Friday past—and how retailers can avoid them
- 12 charts that explain this year's holiday shopping trends
- Does Black Friday need a makeover?
- Insider tips to capture mobile dollars this holiday season
- How Amazon does the holidays: No Santa, but plenty of deals
- How retailers can slay the shipment scurge this holiday season
- How Wal-Mart plans to win the holiday season
- How enhanced layaway programs lure holiday shoppers
- How retail marketers can use data to personalize holiday campaigns
- Why digital dominates the retail sales story this holiday season
- How retailers can make Black Friday pay
If you're interested, the NRF has a handy “Holiday HQ” with consumer surveys, articles, and reports all centered on the holiday shopping season.