One of the upsides of challenges is that it always comes with opportunities of innovation, which is exactly what we’ve seen happen since the COVID-19 pandemic led to complete lockdowns the world over. Black Friday is a dynamic, ever-changing period from one year to the next, but this year is going to be much different, as we navigate an environment where foot traffic in stores is tightly controlled. So, to quote Mashable’s article on Black Friday Future Predictions 2020: “Black Friday is going to be weird this year, and that’s a good thing.”
Black November.
The first prediction is the introduction of Black November. I think this has slowly but surely coming along with many retailers extending the period of their Black Friday sales. In 2019, we saw 78% of shoppers engaging in Black Friday sales that started earlier in November before the actual day. In 2020, we expect to see many retailers deploying a Black November strategy as a way to try and make up for lost sales earlier in the year. We also anticipate that shoppers will take advantage of this due to being cash strapped and saving their money to access bargains over this time.
Higher Retailer Participation.
Secondly, we expect to see higher retailer participation. Again, due to lost sales earlier this year during “hard lockdown” and the echoing effects thereof, many retailers might not have a choice but to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. This, on top of the standard annual growth in retailer participation, makes for an extra engaged year.
Record Online Sales.
We expect that this will be a record year for Black Friday online sales. As we know, stores are more than likely still going to be restricted in terms of the number of people entering a store simultaneously, but even in a best-case scenario where this restriction is lifted, we don’t expect shoppers to feel safe doing so regardless. Consequently, leaving online shopping as the safer alternative.
More Online Shopping and Delivery Issues.
And this leads me to the fourth prediction: shoppers are likely to encounter more online shopping issues than usual due to the sheer volume of people accessing these online platforms. Moreover, more online purchases can and most probably will lead to delivery delays as a result of the influx of online Black Friday sales.
At iLEAD et al, we look forward to navigating Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 with our clients, finding innovative ways to take this time of the year to a whole new level.
