Black Friday – When the bargain hunters get into shopping mood

A Big Data analysis by impact&emotions analysed the behaviour patterns of consumers on Black Friday. The marketing measure established in the USA has also convinced more and more German retailers in recent years. Five years ago, there were still great reservations in Germany that this discount campaign would counteract their own Christmas business. And wrongly so – as the impact&emotions study with Respondi’s big data tool “Digital Life Board” shows.

Instead of a self-disclosure, the Digital Life Board determines the recorded behaviour of people and records the use of websites, apps and search terms with time and duration and key figures of the digital advertising measurement. These behavioural indicators were evaluated by impact&emotions in relation to other sociodemographic data related to online shopping: a total of 5.7 million page views in three markets (France, Germany, United Kingdom) over a period of 3 months (October, November, December).

In all markets, a noticeable peak can be detected on “Black Friday” and occurs both in the search behaviour and in the purchase transactions. In some cases, online purchases increase by a factor of 2.5. As a result, however, no significant slump in shopping behaviour is discernible. In the days after “Black Friday”, e-commerce is profiting from the Christmas business as usual, and the number of visits to shopping pages and the number of purchase transactions will continue to rise until mid-December. It is only in the last week before Christmas that buying behaviour changes away from online shopping towards classic retail in order to receive the last presents in time for Christmas.

In a closer analysis of the websites it became clear that not all industries are equally in demand. Above all, the pages of fashion labels are used and accessed on Black Friday. There are also country-specific differences. While in France and above all in the UK the dealer sites are targeted, in Germany the most frequently used site with a clearly defined reference to “Black Friday” is MyDealz, followed by amazon.

CONCLUSION:

The “Black-Friday” is also increasingly finding fans in Germany who are willing to buy. A cannibalization effect, on the other hand, cannot be observed. It can be assumed, for example, that if the event becomes increasingly well known, both retailers and buyers will mark the day as a fixed shopping event in their calendars – as was the case in the past, for example, with summer or winter sales in the retail trade.