Black Friday week kicks off with many doubts among retailers and consumers alike
The start of “Black Friday” on a Friday at the end of November is now history and this date for the explosion of sales has been brought forward this year to almost the whole month, although this week is the key week, because shops have already launched their offers, more aggressive this year to compensate for the effects of high inflation on pockets.
Households and citizens have been forced to take a closer look at their household accounts in this final stretch of the year due to the increase in the cost of the shopping basket, electricity, gas, fuel and mortgages.
The commercial sector, aware of this, wonders to what extent all these circumstances will reduce consumption in the final stretch of the year, which is when they account for around 40% of annual turnover.
The first reference indicator to detect what will happen on this “Black Friday” was communicated by the logistics employers’ organisation, UNO: “Shipments will fall by 5.3 % compared to those managed in 2021, both on this date and at Christmas”.
The drop in the number of shipments anticipated by UNO (from 106 million in 2021 to 100 million in 2022) means a reduction in purchases, although analysts expect that it will not affect the overall expenditure that Spaniards will spend during this month.
Another argument along the same lines points to a 17.3% reduction in the volume of employment compared to 2021, from 40,380 contracts to around 33,380 hires, according to Randstad Research calculations.
Another analysis that ensures that there will be a lower number of purchases has been produced by the Cetelem Observatory (of BNP Paribas), which indicates that 48% of Spaniards surveyed will buy some product on Black Friday, which means 3 percentage points less than on the same date last year.
The same analysis, however, concludes that the expected expenditure will be 279 euros on average per person, 7% more than in 2021, which is largely related to an average increase in prices.
MORE CLOTHES, FEWER MOBILES
There is no sector that has not surrendered to the temptation of “Black Friday” in terms of an improvement in turnover based on discounted prices, from travel, restaurants, leisure, hotels, construction materials, household goods and even car hire, gyms or training courses.
However, the five most popular products for this first stage of the end-of-year sales will be fashion, footwear and accessories, followed by mobile devices, toys and health and beauty products.
The Cetelem report highlights as a novelty this year a “substantial drop” in the intention to purchase mobile devices and gaming products, in the region of 4 percentage points less compared to 2021.
MASSIVE STOCKPILING OF INVENTORY
The “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday” and Christmas concentrate 40% of the commercial and logistics activity of the whole year, says the employers UNO, so many chains have brought forward the stockpiling of inventory to avoid suffering the extra costs in manufacturing and transport and will launch a “more aggressive” sales.
Regarding prices, the latest survey carried out by the comparator Idealo among more than 2,000 consumers in Spain reveals that 69.8% believe that shops raise prices just before Black Friday.
The same survey highlights that 90% of consumers will buy something if the discounts are really attractive.
That purchase intention will be divided this year between online (62% of consumers) and in-store purchases (38%), according to a study by Adevinta.
The list of companies and brands most searched for the word “Black Friday” by the networks is headed by El Corte Inglés, Amazon and Zara, with fashion as the category with the most interest ahead of technology, according to the Internet República agency.
Despite the complex outlook, the evolution of “Black Friday” since it left the United States for the whole world has turned this date of sales into one of the most awaited moments for global commerce “which offers consumers offers and discounts to anticipate their Christmas shopping”, highlights the marketing platform Acrelia.
