Black Friday is just ahead and this week has many consumers excited and many online and offline retailers nervous. So, what are the experts forecasting for sales for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season? Will it be merry, mobile or mostly disappointing? Some retailers will close on Thanksgiving and a few, like REI, will be closed on Black Friday in a sort of anti-consumer ploy. The answers are just ahead. We’ve compiled a longer than usual post and we hope you enjoy it and benefit from the insights.
TV 9’s Matt Granite shares his annual Black Friday predictions including 10% cheaper savings on Cyber Monday. BestBlackFriday.com lists everything you’d want to know about the US shopping fest including best deals in every category. Huffington Post previews a series of leaked ads from Walmart, target and more. FatWallet says consumer electronics will be hot this year as it released Black Friday pricing projections on seven tech and home categories.
City A.M. estimates UK shoppers may spend up to $2.8 billion on Black Friday. Research firm Conlumino says 45% of shoppers plan to spend less on Black Friday this year than last year. iovation predicts 48% of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales will be made on mobile devices. The National Retail Federation says consumers are spending more on travel and tax preparation leading to speculation they may spend somewhat less on shopping this year. Salesforce urges retailers to accelerate digital transformations to provide personalized, 1-to-1 customer journeys. 1 in 4 shoppers save holiday shopping until the last minute, 46% of women may just walk out according to ThoughtWorks. Wired takes an in-depth look at Amazon‘s attempt to undermine Black Friday. Finally, TheNextWeb has an interesting story on how Black Friday went digital and global.
10 huge Black Friday 2015 predictions
Matt Granite has been studying sales, deals, retail trends and hunting down the biggest deals for the past decade. Whether you know him from this TV station, YouTube or USA Today, he shares 10 huge predictions where he guarantees 100% accuracy.
Starting with, Black Friday is over as we know it. It has no chance against Cyber Monday where he says you’ll save 10% more. $99 desktops, $150 laptops and cheap TVs and many more predictions. Via 9news.com
Prepare for the sales: Black Friday predictions
How do you know whether Black Friday prices will be better than any reference prices or deals earlier in the year? You can make your best guess based on your own shopping experience, or you can consult websites like BestBlackFriday.com.
BestBlackFriday.com has done some of the work for you through extensive research on ads and prices for thousands of products. Their recently released lists of Black Friday Predictions are categorized by product for easy reference. Here is a sampling of some of BestBlackFriday.com’s predictions for 2015. Via kivitv.com
Leaked Black Friday 2015 Ads From Walmart, Target And More: Get The Best Deals
Black Friday is famous for its deals, when retailers offer their biggest no-holds-barred discounts of the year. With 87 million shoppers participating in Black Friday last year, according to the National Retail Federation, stores know there are huge sales numbers to be had on Friday, Nov. 27. And, these stores are willing to slash prices to make sure shoppers are busting down their doors instead of their competitors’.
Lucky for shoppers, Black Friday keeps getting bigger every year with hype starting even sooner. The first Black Friday ad GOBankingRates found leaked at the beginning of October, and most major retailers’ Black Friday ads leak shortly after Halloween. This gives holiday shoppers weeks to make a Black Friday game plan. This list of leaked Black Friday 2015 ads will help you compare prices and plan purchases for Nov. 27. Via huffingtonpost.com Via huffingtonpost.com
Black Friday Pricing: Top 25 Tech Predictions
With a record 50,000 advertised deals expected this Black Friday, and the largest-ever pre-holiday release of new smartphones, tablets, streaming-media players and other in-demand tech, the extended Thanksgiving/Cyber Monday weekend may prove to be the biggest five-day shopping period history. So saith FatWallet, the consumer savings site that publishes thousands of current online discounts and coupon codes that stack with cashback rewards from 1,700 retailers including Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Kohl’s.
Going further out on a limb, the company has released Black Friday pricing projections on seven tech and home categories, based on reviews of current retails, major year-to-date sales events, and previous fourth-quarter promotions. Its conclusion: “It’s going to be the year to buy consumer electronics,” said spokesman Brent Shelton. “Yes, we say that every year, but the tech market is ripe with newness, leaving last year’s models prime for super low pricing.” Via twice.com
Top 24 Black Friday Predictions Hint of More Deals, Lower Prices
FatWallet.com, where millions of deal hunters go to stack coupons with cash back, predicts a record 50,000 advertised deals from 2015 Black Friday ads (45,000 in 2014) featuring some of the lowest prices of the year for Thanksgiving holiday weekend. With the majority of new smartphones, tablets, streaming devices and in-demand tech released weeks ahead of previous years, early November sales will be ripe for competitive discounting in advance of Black Friday. However, 4 to 1, holiday shoppers are expecting major retailers to offer their deepest savings during prime Black Friday events vs. the early sales, 2 to 1 over Cyber Monday deals (2015 Holiday Survey). This despite 42% of consumers that disagree with stores opening on Thanksgiving Day.
This annual list of Black Friday predictions covers a wide variety of consumer electronics and other popular products. Current prices were analyzed and compared with previous annual sales and Black Friday events to evaluate conclusions. Along with highly anticipated store-wide discounts of 30-60% off clothing, toys, home items and appliances at hundreds of retailers, including 50% off or more on major appliances, here are the TOP 24 Black Friday Predictions for 2015 from FatWallet (2014 low price in parenthesis)… Via virtual-strategy.com
Black Friday UK 2015: Apps including HotDeals UK, Stocard, Amazon, EBay and Waze will help find the best bargains on 27 November
Black Friday is almost upon us. But if, come 27 November, you’d rather dodge the crowds and get straight to the bargains, you might need some help. After all, around one in six Britons are planning to make the most of the deals day to snare a bargain, with one in five of us expecting to snap up goods for at least half the usual retail price. Estimates for the total spent on Black Friday vary from £1bn to £1.9bn ($1.5 billion – $2.8 billion) – which, if it’s the latter, will be double what was spent last year.
All that means there’s going to be a lot of people clamouring to get their hands on the best deals available – and there will be plenty of retailers vying for the cash. These apps should help you cut through the noise and navigate the retail bonanza, whether it lasts 24 hours or a full week. Via cityam.com
Black Friday could be Bleak Friday for retailers
According to a survey done by retail research firm Conlumino, 45% of shoppers said they planned to spend less on Black Friday this year than last year. Another 24% said they would spend about the same amount while only 18% said they would spend more. The remaining 13% sat out Black Friday last year and said they would do so again this year.
Those figures are obviously pretty gloomy. Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial, adds that consumers could spend more if they wanted. But they appear to be choosing to hold back due to some lingering fears about the economy. Via money.cnn.com
Nearly 50% of Black Friday to Cyber Monday Online Sales Will be on a Mobile Device
iovation, the provider of device intelligence for authentication and fraud prevention, is predicting that 48 percent of all retail transactions from Black Friday to Cyber Monday this year will be made from mobile phones and tablets. The company also forecasts that the highest rate of mobile retail transactions will take place between 9 to 10pm EST during the peak holiday season, matching the top time window for mobile transactions during that same period in 2013 and 2014.
“As more people are visiting family, friends and stores on Black Friday, mobile traffic will be higher than on Cyber Monday when they can shop from work or home,” said iovation’s Vice President of Product Scott Olson. “We predict consumers will be making 25 percent more transactions with their mobile devices on Black Friday than Cyber Monday. Just as quickly as we reach the mobile purchasing tipping point during the peak holiday shopping season, consumers will return to their more ordinary shopping habits immediately following Cyber Monday¾predominantly transacting from their laptops and desktops.” Via claimsjournal.com
12 charts that explain this year’s holiday shopping trends
If there’s one clear takeaway from all the projections leading up to the 2015 holiday shopping season, it’s that change is the new normal. “There is a real sea change happening in retail when it comes to the how, when, where, and why of holiday shopping,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.
Many analysts are predicting a drop in retail sales this holiday season as consumers shift their demand from goods to services. NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz told Bloomberg that the retail trade association is seeing consumers spend more on travel and tax preparation, which may limit their spend on holiday gifts. Via retaildive.com
Tech Needed To Boost Retail Sales, Salesforce Says
In fact, 88 percent of shoppers who avoid going to physical stores during the holiday season do so due to the crowds (82 percent), limited parking (48 percent), convenience of online shopping (48 percent) and a lack of knowledge/service from seasonal employees (24 percent). One of the study’s key results is that retailers are failing to leverage technology to create multichannel experiences for shoppers.
The Millennial Divide
“As Black Friday approaches, and with more than $950 billion expected to be spent this holiday season in the United States, new research from Salesforce shows that in order to succeed, retailers need to accelerate digital transformations to provide personalized, 1-to-1 customer journeys for customers,” the company said in a statement. The failure of retailers to use information technology to their advantage is particularly noticeable when it comes to millennial-age shoppers (ages 18-34), who represent a trillion-dollar market, according to Salesforce. Via crm-daily.com
ThoughtWorks Retail Holiday Shopping Consumer Survey Finds: 77% of Consumers Will Shop Stores or Websites During the Holidays They Dont Usually Shop
Results reveal trends in holiday shopping: 1 in 4 shoppers save holiday shopping until the last minute, 46% of women may just walk out
ThoughtWorks Retail today announced results of its inaugural holiday shopping survey of more than 500 U.S. consumers —51% female and 49% male.* The results revealed new insights into five key areas of interest to retailers: loyalty, fulfillment, mobile, consumer behavior and customer service.
Below are key findings from the survey:
Loyalty: A New Opportunity To Earn It
Retailers spend much time talking about loyalty but the reality is, most consumers feel pretty lukewarm about all those loyalty cards taking up space in their wallets: only 9% of those surveyed limit their shopping to retailers with which they have loyalty card or rewards memberships and only 25% say a store or website’s loyalty program is important to them and will influence whether they shop there. But new customer acquisition can be the gift that keeps on giving if retailers are ready for it: 77% of consumers say they will shop stores or websites during the holidays that they don’t usually shop. This important finding represents an opportunity for retailers to earn new fans – that is if retention strategies are in place now. Via thoughtworks.com
Amazon’s ingenious scheme to undermine Black Friday
DEPENDING UPON YOUR outlook, Black Friday is either a time-honored US shopping holiday or the miserable nadir of American consumer culture. Whichever lens you choose to view it through, there’s no denying that Black Friday is huge Adobe’s Digital Index shows that last year’s Black Friday holiday set a record, with consumers spending $2.4 billion online, a 24 percent increase from 2013. This year, according to estimates, that trend line is still going up: eMarketerprojects a 5.7 percent gain in retail sales, with e-commerce continuing to grow in the double digits, as it’s done for several years.
Of all the retailers hoping to capitalize on this trend, Amazon is by far the most well-positioned. This week, on the heels of launching a Black Friday online store well ahead of the actual day, the company said that its holiday deals would start rolling out as early as tomorrow—a full week ahead of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving here in the US. The company had eight days of Black Friday deals last year, too, but this year it’s giving the promotion an even bigger push: new deals will be added as often as every five minutes on Amazon’s dedicated Black Friday page, twice the rate of last year. In 2014, Amazon offered three “coveted” deals of the day starting on Thanksgiving at midnight, as well as three more on Black Friday; this year, it’s offering ten at the stroke of midnight on both days. Via Wired
How Black Friday went digital and global
Last year, more people shopped online than in stores on Black Friday for the first time ever. With online increasingly becoming the preferred way to shop globally, this result is perhaps unsurprising to some, but for those of us in the ecommerce industry, this marks a major turning point for Black Friday as we know it.
Black Friday was originally a US holiday and has for decades been characterised by commercial chaos – shoppers camping outside of stores to ensure they get first dibs on sale items, and so many accidents occurring that the website blackfridaydeathcount.com was set up to record them in all their ridiculousness (seven deaths 98 injuries that were Black Friday-related in 2014). Therefore, the concept of this shopping holiday going digital promises a much different story!
As a result of this shift to digital, Black Friday is also becoming less of a shopping event that’s exclusive to US consumers, and is now transforming into a global phenomenon. As this infographic indicates, Black Friday appears to be ‘cooling off’ in the US, while other regions worldwide are becoming increasingly more involved with the holiday shopping season with each year that passes. Via thenextweb.com
Holiday shopping excitement is building
Retailers are nervous but consumers are certainly ready to shop for deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This collection of expert predictions proves one thing – nobody knows for sure except that there will be a lot of spending. Our own Black Friday post will take a look at the best cashback credit cards around the world. Just in case you’re planning on spending. Next week, we’ll have an in-depth look back at what happened in the early days of this year’s holiday shopping season. stay tuned!