Black Friday or the hype around…promotional campaigns
Most of the networks take advantage of the media hype around Black Friday and the fact that, according to various studies, 50% even up to 90% of Poles have heard about special sales organized on this occasion. Promotional activities go beyond Black Friday and are based on slogans such as: Black Week, Black Friday every weekend of the month, we overtake Black Friday, Black Week the week before (speaking of earlier bargains) etc. Popularity of this type of promotional campaigns also results from the more and more common pre-holiday shopping planning, and therefore, it is associated with gathering gifts for the beloved ones already from the turn of October and November. Thanks to this grocery shopping which was previously difficult to do in December is left for this month.
In many cases, such an approach does not burden the budget too much in a strictly Christmas holiday month. Both traders and the customers themselves benefit from this. The former have Christmas holidays season basically from 2 November (in some cases references to holidays appear already in October), the latter can afford to do more shopping.
During Black Friday 2021, such an approach to shopping may be also caused by galloping inflation and fear of further price increases, and thus, anxiety whether the home budget will be enough to cope with the planned Christmas shopping. As a result, by such exploitation of the undoubtedly popular slogan in trade, which is Black Friday, it can be said that Black Friday in the Polish edition is merely a substitute for the original from overseas.
Omnichannel in the service of Black Friday
Currently, retail chains more and more often are linking Black Friday with Cyber Monday, associated with equally attractive offers on the Monday following Black Friday, but related to online commerce. The reason for this is, among others, the fact that retail chains are developing the omnichannel concept – connection and interpenetration of various forms of sale (e.g., traditional – stationary and virtual stores – online stores, shopping applications).
This encourages customers to use various forms of shopping, e.g., a coupon with a special discount code when shopping on Black Friday in a brick-and-mortar store, to be used on the following Monday only in the online store. Additionally, due to changes in shopping habits caused by the pandemic, the line between Black Friday (intended as a "holiday" of brick-and-mortar shopping) and the following Cyber Monday (the equivalent of Black Friday for e-commerce) is getting blurred.
Black Friday – sale traps
We should also consider whether, thanks to the sales on this Friday, which is exceptional for trading, we are really saving as consumers, or are we exposing ourselves to unnecessary expenses? There is no unequivocal answer. As always, you can only advise against impulse buying.
Slogans such as "minus 90%" are usually marked with an asterisk saying that they only apply to the selected assortment. And the chosen product is usually the one that has been lying on the shelves for several seasons. We need to remember that most consumers are equipped with an effective tool to verify the attractiveness of each promotional offer – a smartphone, as well as dedicated applications for comparing prices over a specific period of time. Therefore, in order to avoid later disappointments, it is best to compare the current prices of different traders, analyse the prices of products (especially the more expensive ones) in a specific time period.
Consumers should also be aware of the fact that some traders may be tempted to engage in illegal practices during Black Friday as well as throughout the whole pre-holiday season. An extreme case may be the impersonation of a well-known online store and provoking the consumer to pay for goods, which, of course, they will never receive. Another unfair practice is price manipulation – artificially increasing the starting price and then lowering it (under the slogan of promotion) to a level close to the regular price. Yet another illegal practice may be to inform a consumer that a given product at a promotional price is available only at a certain time, e.g., on Black Friday, while it is not true – the purpose of such an action is to persuade the customer to make an immediate purchase decision. Thus, the consumer is deprived of the possibility to make an informed choice.
Source: dr Mariusz Woźniakowski, Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management, UL
Edit: Promotion Centre, UL