How does Black Friday impact Retailers, Consumers, Traders?
Some may know about Black Friday, some may not. In this article, tradingcritique.com explains Black Friday with its history. Let us also see how Black Friday impacts the activities of consumers, retailers, and traders.
What is Black Friday
Black Friday is a famous shopping day with many discounts available worldwide mostly in American and European countries. Now the influence of Black Friday is also seen in Asian countries. Both brick and mortar stores and online Retailers Provide good discounts on Black Friday.
The retailers provide a really good number of deals on Black Friday. Many consumers line up before the physical store/brick and mortar retail stores to get the best deals on Black Friday. The customers even line up from midnight in front of the stores.
When is Black Friday
Black Friday is the one that falls after Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated mostly on the fourth Thursday of every November month. Friday which comes after Thanksgiving Day is Black Friday.
Black Friday is also an indication of the start of celebration sales. The Christmas shopping deals and New Year shopping deals start with Black Friday. Because of the high number of sales during this period, this quarter of the financial year is called the golden quarter.
The Monday which follows up to Black Friday is called a Cyber Monday. This day is famous for online shopping deals provided by online retailers such as Amazon. The Best offers for the year in the online retail stores are given during cyber monday.
Starting from Black Friday day till cyber-Monday, the full weekend is full of discount offers provided for various products such as clothes, mobile phones, home appliances, electronic items, etc.
The sale discounts continue till New Year. So, from Black Friday the period for the shopping of various celebrations such as New Year and Christmas starts.
The below table gives the dates of Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday for the years 2018 to 2028.
Table 1: Dates of Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday from 2018-2028
| Years | Thanksgiving date (Thursday) | Black Friday date | Cyber Monday date |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2018
|
November 22
|
November 23
|
November 26
|
|
2019
|
November 21
|
November 22
|
November 25
|
|
2020
|
November 26
|
November 27
|
November 30
|
|
2021
|
November 25
|
November 26
|
November 29
|
|
2022
|
November 24
|
November 25
|
November 28
|
|
2023
|
November 23
|
November 24
|
November 27
|
|
2024
|
November 28
|
November 29
|
December 2
|
|
2025
|
November 27
|
November 28
|
December 1
|
|
2026
|
November 26
|
November 27
|
November 30
|
|
2027
|
November 25
|
November 26
|
November 29
|
|
2028
|
November 23
|
November 24
|
November 27
|
Why is Black Friday named so? – It’s History
Prominent one reason why Black Friday was named so is not available. Many reasons are given for the naming of Black Friday.
The first usage of the term Black Friday was due to a stock market crash that happened on September 24, 1869. The crash was because of 2 investors named Jay Gould and Jim fisk who tried to increase the price of gold. It turned negative causing a stock market crash.
Next in the 1950s, and the Philadelphia police used the term Black Friday as there was much crowd between Thanksgiving Day and the Army-Navy game. More people, tourists, Shoppers flooded the city, and it was difficult for the police to control. The police worked more than 12 hours a day during this weekend, and it was tiring for them. So, they named this Friday to be Black Friday.
In accounting, profits are written in black ink and losses are written in red ink. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the day where the retailers can see good profits. Due to the increased amount of sales during that Friday it was named Black Friday. From the 1980s this practice is being followed till now.
Black Friday is also getting important in Islamic nations such as Pakistan. Because of the good shopping deals, they like to name Black Friday as White Friday because their religion specifies white as a symbol of wealth, prosperity and positivity.
Significance of Black Friday
Black Friday benefits a lot of people and also retail companies. Definitely, it is a day with heavy money flow.
Even stock trading and other kinds of trading has little benefits from Black Friday. Let us see the significance of Black Friday from the views of consumers, retailers and traders.
For consumers
Consumers can get the best prices for the products they like to buy on Black Friday. They can save a lot of money by purchasing products on Black Friday. But it takes more effort to buy Products on a black Friday in both physical and online stores.
In physical stores/bricks and mortar stores the consumers need to line up with the crowd and patiently wait to even get inside the stores. Many accidents have occurred because of the crowd that was present during Black Friday to do shopping.
In online stores, the consumers should get the deals as soon as they’re available on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Sometimes the deals may get over in a short span of time. As many consumers may visit the online store’s website it may crash sometimes. Consumers may also face many technical issues. So getting a deal during Black Friday and Cyber Monday is really a piece of luck for the consumers.
To get the best deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday you need to put in some hard work and give a little more effort. Sometimes your luck and many times your efforts work to save a lot of your money during Black Friday. Follow some strategies to get the best offers during black friday and cyber monday.
For Retailers
Retailers will wait for this season to arrive. Black Friday is the starting of the festive season for the retailers where they see higher percentage of sales. They may even plan a whole year for preparing for black Friday sales and sales after it which continues for a month.
Though the retailers provide discounts for the products, they know to make profits. The number of products sold during this period is more when compared to other months.
For Traders
How to prepare for a Black Friday?
Preparing for Black Friday differs for different individuals as different kinds of people get benefited from Black Friday. As seen in the above section consumers, retailers, traders are the important people who get benefited from Black Friday. So each of them should have different plans to profit from Black Friday.
Each of the specific plans for Black Friday should depend on the activity such as,
- Consumers should plan for buying
- Retailers should plan for selling
- Traders should plan for trading
Steps a Buyer should follow for Black Friday
Buyers or consumers can profit a lot from Black Friday by doing a little research and putting in some effort.
Follow the steps to prepare for Black Friday as a buyer,
- Before Black Friday, check the deals available in various retail outlets according to the product you like to buy and make a list.
- You may get subscriptions of various online retail platforms such as Amazon Prime membership to get an upper hand in Black Friday sales.
- Subscribing to the newsletter of various retail brands can help you to get emails about Black Friday off
- You can check various websites which provide details about Black Friday sales of various brands.
- If you are going to buy products from a direct physical store on Black Friday, then you should be prepared to stand in line and adjust with the crowd. (This is not possible during the Covid time)
- Gather information and be on time to grab the deals on Black Friday.
Steps a Retailer should follow for Black Friday
Retailers are the ones which make these black Friday sales possible. It takes much time, effort and expertise to set up for Black friday sales.
Retailers should follow the below steps to prepare for Black Friday sales,
- Start planning priorly for Black Friday sales.
- According to the size of your retail store set up a team to look specifically into Black Friday.
- If you are a physical store make arrangements to manage the crowds of customers who may come to your store.
- Approximately have a count of the number of customers who may visit for Black Friday.
- Have a good amount of human resourceshuman resources to successfully do your sales on Black Friday.
- Have a proper management team for Black Friday sales.
- If you are an online retail seller, see to it that your servers and website does not crash.
- Finally profit well from Black Friday sales through proper planning.
Steps a Trader should follow for Black Friday
The trading field is completely different compared to buying and selling.
Follow the below steps as a trader to profit from Black Friday,
- Finalise the financial market which you will be trading on black Friday. It can be a stock market, forex market, OTC market, etc.
- Check the market opening time e., stock market timings and OTC market timings.
- Select the stocks of companies that you are going to trade on Black Friday.
- Prepare a proper trading plan and trading strategy.
- According to the price movement of the stocks change your strategies on the trading date.
- Use Technical analysis and Fundamental analysis to speculate the price movements.
- Use the market movements that happen during Black Friday for your profits and benefits.
- Going short works best during Black Friday trading.
- Expert traders can easily benefit while trading on Black Friday.
Impact of COVID-19 on Black Friday
COVID – 19 has impacted the lives of all the people around the world in some or the other way. In the same way, Black Friday of 2020 was also affected by COVID-19. The Brick and mortar shops in many places were not able to open the shops themselves on Black Friday.
Online shops were able to sell some and offer through discounts. But many people were not in a happy mood to buy things. November 27, 2020, Black Friday was not a happy shopping day like the other years. Surely there were fewer sales.
Things are getting back to normal because of the covid vaccination drives across the countries. Let us hope for the November 26, 2021, Black Friday to be a normal day with shopping discounts with a balanced situation for the consumers and retailers. Only if the COVID – 19 situation subsides there can be proper sales during Black Friday.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Black Friday sales
Though Black Friday offers great discounts it has its pros and cons. Let’s see about its advantages and disadvantages in the below table.
Table 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of Black Friday sales
| Advantages of Black Friday Sales | Disadvantages of Black Friday Sales |
|---|---|
More discounts and offers are given by retail stores. | Many consumers will compete to get the offers. |
Available in both Online and Direct retail stores. | Physical stores can be flooded with the crowd. |
High sales happen in a day. | Online store websites may get high traffic leading to a crash of the website. |
Black Friday sale is the start of festive sales for Christmas and New year. | All consumers may not get an equal opportunity of the discounts |
Best time to get the best rate for the products. | Direct sales are impossible during the covid-19 time. |
Traders can benefit from the short selling of stocks. | Just Black Friday sales do not impact the price of the stocks of retail companies a lot. |
In a Nutshell – Black Friday
- Retail stores provide the best offers and discounts for the products on Black Friday.
- The Friday of the fourth week in the November month of every year is Black Friday day.
- The Monday after black friday is called Cyber Monday.
- Good sales happen during both Black Friday and Cyber Monday due to a high number of discounts and offers.
- Both retailers and consumers benefit from Black Friday sales.
- Stocks of retail companies are slightly impacted by black Friday but does not have any significant changes.
- COVID – 19 pandemic negatively impacted Black Friday sales of 2020.
Black Friday is a great day for sales. It has significant importance among consumers and retailers worldwide. You also try and grab good deals during Black Friday sales.
Do you follow any specific strategies to grab good deals for Black Friday? If so comment your answers below.
tradingcritique.com provides all information on Trading and Broker-Dealer platforms. You can get proper guidance from us on trading. Check our other sections on this website. Subscribe to our newsletter and notification to get regular updates.
Newsletter