In this day and age, millennials are consumed with the internet, choosing to use mobile devices and PCs to date, chat, and of course…shop. In 2016, 137.4 million Americans planned on shopping on Black Friday weekend, that’s more than the number of ballots cast in the election. That’s an alarming number of shoppers.
An Image of Black Friday
When you imagine Black Friday, you may see shoppers piled inside of Wal-Mart and Target. This may have been true in the early 2000s, but in reality, today the number of online Black Friday shoppers is steadily rising. While Target sells thousands of TVs in their first hour on Black Friday, in 2016, Amazon sold more than 100,000 toys within the first few hours.
This year, on the weekend of November 24 (Black Friday 2017) rumor has it even more will be shopping online as opposed to in-store.
In 2016, shoppers made 51% of their everyday purchases online; this is an increase from 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014.
Why the fall?
In general Black Friday sales are falling; this is due to early sales on Thanksgiving Day. But online deals that are not part of the holiday season seem to be abundant. Places like eBay and Amazon will offer deals to their customers year round.
In addition, most of the deals found in stores, can be found on the retailer’s website. When buying online, customers have more control and a much more convenient method of checking competitor’s prices.
When shopping online, shoppers also have exactly what they need in the color, style, bulk, and often price they are looking for.
Online Payments
When asked, one of the biggest complaints about in-store shopping is the limited payment options. In 2014, PayPal processed $234.64 billion in payments. That same year, 161.5 million accounts were active. Today, this number has reached over 200 million.
Most sites offer the option to pay with PayPal as well as Visa, MasterCard, and nearly any option available in stores. When you add digital wallet companies to this list, you bring in a substantial amount of users in.
Since 2014, statistics show that the amount of money spent online has nearly doubled. It is believed that this number will do nothing but continuously rise.
What is the forecast for Black Friday 2017?
Since there is nothing that suggests more people will be shopping at retail stores, it is believed that the percentage of online shoppers will increase.
If this is the case, you will see fewer shoppers in stores, and more shoppers spending money at home or while at work.
Although the ease of access, convenience, and choices are preferable online, it is believed that fewer shoppers will be making purchases on Black Friday altogether as Cyber Monday takes over.
In 2015, $1.73 billion was spent on Thanksgiving Day, $2.74 billion was spent on Black Friday, and a whopping $3.07 was spent on Cyber Monday.
It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that in a few short years, Black Friday will be a thing of the past as random online sales, as well as Cyber Monday, overcomes the day after Thanksgiving sales once and for all: ending the holiday we know as Black Friday.