The Real Deal On Black Friday

As I opened my inbox this morning, it was more obvious to me than ever that Black Friday has already started. موقع قمار اون لاين “BLACK FRIDAY SNEAK PEEK” and “LAST CHANCE DEALS” are just a few of marketers attempts at FOMO-inducing headlines (or Fear Of Missing Out for all my non-acronym fluent friends). Black Friday used to be just Friday, but with retailers and marketers alike pushing consumers to buy buy buy, Black Friday now begins Thursday afternoon for many stores. Furthermore, Cyber Monday began this week, instead of the Monday following Thanksgiving. What’s the deal? And no – I’m not talking saving money here!
Starting consumer savings before Black Friday means retailers could get a head start into the “black,” or be financially solvent (if they weren’t already). Unfortunately, many uneducated consumers do not know that Black Friday is NOT the best day of the year to get the best prices on items, and neither is Cyber Monday. Clothing is hit-or-miss and often you get much better deals at end of season sales or through retailers such as 6PM.com (Zappos’s clearance website, my credit card’s most hated website). In most cases, there are great deals on electronics for Black Friday, but the electronics you can get the best deals on come and go in trends. This year, for example, the PlayStation 4 is rumored to be one of the hot items that you can get the best deal on. Therefore, before you rush out to camp out outside of Best Buy or hit the mall at 5a.m., you should do your research. Take advantage of retailers who post Black Friday “sneak peeks” on their website or through e-blasts, check social media, and check sites such as RetailMeNot.com for additional coupons and savings. Amazon.com and previously mentioned 6PM.com are my secret weapons for finding lower-priced anything. In the meantime, since you’re already probably surfing the Internet for holiday deals, check out some of these facts about Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

• In 2013, New York City had the most people shopping online during Black Friday, followed by Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago (source: Entrepreneur).
• 1 out of 3 Americans plan to shop on Black Friday (source: Entrepreneur). Hopefully the other 2/3 have more sane plans. موقع مراهنات 365
• Up 18% from 2012, over $1.9  billion was spent in online Black Friday sales (source: Entrepreneur). That’s a lot of Chipotle burritos!
• Surprisingly enough, shopping in stores at 10am or later was the most popular time, while 1-3am was the least popular (source: Entrepreneur). Glad to see people have at least some common sense.
• Online Black Friday sales peaked around 9am in 2013, and Google searches between 8am-noon, then again from 4pm-7pm (source: Entrepreneur)
• Amazon.com is the most popular Black Friday retailer with 7.7 unique visitors, followed by Wal-Mart at 3.5 million and then Best Buy at 2.75 million (source: National Retail Federation)
• Clocking in at 87%, the most popular Black Friday purchase were electronics, followed by clothing at 71% (source: Entrepreneur)
• Black Friday shoppers referred from Pinterest spent 77% more money per order than those referred from Facebook (source: BusinessInsider)
• Conversely, shoppers referred from Facebook converted into sales at almost 4x the rate of Pinterest (source: BusinessInsider)
• In 2012, Wal-Mart had the most Twitter mentions at 77.5% of the voice, but 4:1 of those mentions were negative (source: BusinessInsider). This is not surprisingly, considering the types of incidents that are reported year-after-year at Wal-Mart.