5 Black Friday Trends You Need To Be Aware Of

Black Friday is a day that retailers look forward to all year in preparation for the massive sales spike and customer volume. It’s almost become as much a part of the Thanksgiving holiday as turkey, where families plan their meals around when they will go hunting for the best deals. While Black Friday sales have been diminishing a bit over the last few years, Black Friday still reigns as the king of sales days. Small businesses have tried dozens of ways to capitalize on the success of the shopping day over the years with a range of success. Knowing how to grapple the holiday beast is all about knowing what the Black Friday trends are and what you can do to draw in customers.

Shorter Shopping Season Scramble

Because the Thanksgiving holiday falls on November 28th this year, the entire shopping season before Christmas is shortened by 6 days, in comparison to years gone by. This means that there will be a harder push by retailers to get customers in the door and a more hectic buying season from people that rely on that month long window to get their Christmas shopping done. This has the potential to make Black Friday numbers rise more than they have in previous years. Watch out for older Black Friday trends to return in an effort to drum up excitement just before December begins.

E-Commerce Focus

While Black Friday will always reign as king, plenty of people prefer to shop in their pajamas from the comfort of their homes. Thus the rise of e-commerce platforms has made Amazon as much a Black Friday destination as Best Buy or Walmart. This is one of the Black Friday trends that is likely to grow, although many experts do not believe that the comfort of sitting at home can beat the adrenaline rush consumers get when they find the perfect deal. For retailers with no online presence, you have to find a way to compete with the online comfort, while e-commerce stores need to find a way to convince people it’s easier to shop from home.

Mobile Traffic Optimized

Now more than ever, people do most of their online work and interactions from a mobile device. If you’re watching online Black Friday trends, expect to see mobile traffic optimized and more ads or promotions for mobile business. Especially with mobile sales accounting for nearly 40% of all e-commerce transactions in 2018, retailers and e-commerce stores alike will look to mobile in 2019 as the selling opportunity of the season.

Simplification Of The Buying Process

Whether the consumer is purchasing in-store or online, it’s vital that retailers have the opportunity to “close the sale” and consumers are becoming increasingly impatient if they believe they can find a deal elsewhere. Look for one of the 2019 Black Friday trends to be a streamlined shopping process that attempts to get consumers in, close them on a deal and get them out with relative ease. You will see it in stores, where chains like Target have pledged to spend more than $50 million dollars to increase training and hours of vital personnel. Meanwhile, e-commerce stores are working to streamline 1-click buy options to combat the staggering “abandoned cart” rate of nearly 78% on mobile devices.

Promotions and Free Shipping

As always with Black Friday trends, you will see promotions and shipping offers that are staggeringly low in order to get people in the store. Lots of businesses are combining the feeling of a deal found in store with the comfort of having products shipped without fighting to get them out the door. For example, Best Buy will be offering free next-day delivery for the holidays in an attempt to compete with Amazon and Walmart respectively.

Whatever your outlook appears to be for the Black Friday craziness, HJR Global is here to provide you with anything from helpful insights to strategies and plans to survive the hectic holidays and we can even help you secure funding for your business. Interested in being more than you are now? Send us a tweet. Our handle is @HJR_Global and we look forward to hearing from you.