🛍️The end of Black Friday

This year, “When is Black Friday” searches have hit an all-time high. Consumers are confused: retailers are discounting earlier than ever, and Black Friday itself is later than ever.

The reality is, the day of Black Friday no longer exists outside of US. There is barely an uplift in searches during Black Friday week.

Let’s set the scene. The chart pictured shows the increase in Black Friday searches vs its previous week, by country.

📈What stands out? The US in red - which consistently has seen a 4x jump in searches from the prior week to Black Friday week for over a decade now.

📉But conversely, almost every other market now barely sees an search uplift during Black Friday week - last year saw only 1.3-1.6x higher uplift between BF week and the week prior.

❓ So why is US seeing a consistent strong jump, but others markets not?

It’s because Black Friday has a cultural significance in the US. It has always sat on the day after Thanksgiving - historically the most popular shopping day of the year in US, marking the beginning of holiday shopping season.

But outside US, Thanksgiving isn’t a public holiday, and there is no significance to the date of Black Friday for consumers, caused confusion in all the “Fake Friday” offers.

⭐ In other words, Black Friday originated from a CONSUMER led event in US, but in other markets, a RETAILER led event to piggyback the US influence.

This is a major reason why consumers are increasingly confused, and frankly suspicious of Black Friday offers, between every other Q4 promo event (Singles Day, F&F Sales, ClickFrenzy etc).

So what can we take from this into 2025?

TAKEAWAYS:

1️⃣ We will no longer see the peaks of Black Friday outside of US. Retailers should plan their marketing calendars across the whole season, not just the Black Friday. I like how THE ICONIC’s Jere Calmes framed this simply as a ‘seasonofsales’ marketing plan.

2️⃣ Get feedback from your prospects and customers, and be transparent with your promos. How do these events affect your brand reputation? You may be unknowingly detracting your best customers, with the perception of just discounting unpopular stock, for instance.

3️⃣ Adapt your offers in 2025. Use this feedback and updated marketing strategy to develop offers across Q4 that resonate with your customers. Take Beauty, for example. Seasonal Gift Sets are key acquisition drivers from mid October, where bestsellers are packaged into minis to be gifted. What can you package into gift sets that can drive new customers?

⭐In summary, Black Friday will always be an event in the marketing calendar. But the ones that win in 2025 will be those that have reframed Q4 into an period that listens to the needs of their target customers, and not just piggybacking on events that others are taking part in.

How will you adapt your Q4 strategy in 2025?