Black Friday

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Black Friday at Target in November 2008

Black Friday ( Black Friday ) is in the United States the Friday after Thanksgiving known. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November, the following Friday is considered the start of a traditional family weekend and the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Black Friday is a retail sales event that focuses on discounts and aims to encourage people to buy products. In the meantime, the discount campaign has been taken over in many industrialized nations, especially on the Internet .

Economical meaning

Black Friday 2015 in Cerdanyola , Spain

Since most Americans use this day as a bridging day and make their first Christmas shopping, large sales are made in the shops. Many shops and retail chains open early in the morning - usually at five o'clock - and offer special offers, discounts and freebies. Therefore, many people are waiting at night in long queues in front of stores to bargain ( english door busters ) to snag. In 2013, some large chain stores opened their shops early on Thursday evening. Contrary to earlier assumptions, the highest sales of the year have only been achieved in the USA on Black Friday since 2005. Black Friday serves as an important indicator of the holiday season in the USA.

In 2014, $ 50.9 billion was spent over the 4-day Black Friday weekend, an 11% decrease from the previous year. According to estimates, around 134 million people are said to have shopped in 2014, which corresponds to a decrease of 5.2% compared to 2013, when 141 million buyers were still recorded. In 2017, Americans spent nearly eight billion dollars around Black Friday, according to market research Adobe Analytics - an increase of 18 percent compared to the previous year.

Since the spread of internet trading, many online retailers advertise on Cyber ​​Monday following Black Friday with corresponding savings and free promotions.

Differentiation to "Black Thursday"

The day should not be confused with the day of the stock market crash in New York in October 1929 ( Black Friday , but in English mostly Black Thursday 'Black Thursday'). The name Black Friday arose from the fact that due to the time difference in Europe, Friday had already started, while on the American continent Thursday was not yet over. Thus, the stock market crash in Europe fell on a Friday.

Origin of the term "Black Friday"

The following etymological explanations are considered to be the most popular:

  • The name may come from the fact that, from a distance , the crowds on the streets and in the shopping centers appear like a single black mass. This could also be an allusion to the chaos after the stock market crash of 1929, when many people were still trying to save their savings from the banks at the last minute and therefore ran around just as chaotic and en masse.
  • Another theory is that in this high-volume day traders have the chance to get out of the negative - so instead of red figures black writing.
  • This fits the note that the dealers had black hands from counting money that day.

The first known use of the term "Black Friday" (in this sense) was researched by Bonnie Taylor-Blake of the American Dialect Society and proven to be of Philadelphia origin:

“JANUARY 1966 - 'Black Friday' is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing. ”

“JANUARY 1966 - 'Black Friday' is the name the Philadelphia police gave the Friday after Thanksgiving, but it was not an expression of enthusiasm. Black Friday officially opens the downtown Christmas shopping season and it usually brings massive traffic jams and crowded sidewalks while downtown shops are besieged from opening to closing. "

Black Friday in German-speaking countries

Germany

While Black Friday mainly takes place in brick-and-mortar retail in the USA, most discounts are offered online in Germany. Black Friday has been taking place in Germany on a larger scale since 2013. In 2006, Apple was the first company to advertise discounts on Black Friday. Apple never used the name Black Friday in Germany, but spoke of a “one-day shopping event” around 2012. The event quickly gained popularity in the years that followed. In 2013, 500 retailers advertised their Black Friday offers through one of several advertising portals. In 2017, 89 percent of all Germans were already familiar with Black Friday. Around 60 percent wanted to buy from him. In 2018, in a survey on the awareness of Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday in Germany, 94 percent of respondents said they were familiar with the Black Friday campaign.

In contrast to the USA, the sales generated by German retailers on Black Friday are developing positively. In 2014, online retailers expected sales of 296 million euros on Black Friday, an increase of 15.6 percent compared to 2013. According to the payment company Klarna , online purchases on Black Friday increased by 64 percent compared to a normal Friday. According to a survey by RetailMeNot in cooperation with the Center for Retail Research on the forecast e-commerce sales on the Black Friday weekend in Germany, turnover on Black Friday was 360 million euros in 2016, and over 1 billion euros on the Black Friday weekend . For the Black Friday weekend 2017, experts expected a turnover of 1.3 billion euros. The German Retail Association (HDE) forecast an increase in sales on the Black Friday weekend to 2.4 billion euros in 2018 and to 3.1 billion euros in 2019. The Black Friday word mark is partially protected in Germany. Advertising services for third parties and trading in electronic and electrical goods are excluded from trademark protection.

Austria

According to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, retailers in Austria turned over 100 million euros on Black Friday 2018. For Black Friday 2019, the trade association expected additional income of at least 100 million euros.

Switzerland

In Switzerland there were the first Black Friday offers from small online shops from 2007. Manor has only been participating in the shopping event as the first major retailer since 2015 . The company achieved three times more sales on that day than on a normal Friday. In 2016, numerous other large shops followed the example of Manors and also started with discount campaigns. The demand from customers was so great that various online shops could not be reached for several hours. In 2018, experts in Swiss retail expected sales of 440 million francs on Black Friday. Even if the companies were able to post record sales, industry experts warned of the long-term economic consequences for Swiss retail. The pre-Christmas period is the time with the highest turnover anyway, so that the discount campaigns reduce profitability and increase customers' expectation of receiving special offers before Christmas.

Extended Black Friday at Swisscom

Different interpretation of the event

Black Friday, intended as a one-day “shopping event”, is often extended to several days. Other names such as “Yellow Friday” have been used by car salesmen for Opel, here as a reference to the yellow background color of the company logo.

criticism

Black Friday criticism of a climate strike rally

Consumer advocates criticized the fact that the discounts on sales campaigns such as Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday or Amazon's “Cyber ​​Monday Week” in 2015 were often “artificially” inflated. Often the discount would not be calculated on the basis of the actual market price, but rather on the recommended retail price or moon prices, which are set well above the usual commercial prices . When comparing with other providers, the discounts are put into perspective. Often only real price reductions of 10 to 25% are realistic - instead of the advertised 50 or 60%. The portal Mydealz came to a similar verdict, analyzing 1400 offers for Black Fridays 2013 to 2015 according to its own information. According to the evaluation, consumers were able to achieve average savings of 26 percent on smartphones during Black Friday campaigns in 2012, 2013 and 2014, 20 percent on game consoles, 11 percent on televisions and 50 percent on fashion.

Since 1992, the day of action is the consumerism by announcing a purchase nix Tags ( English Buy Nothing Day ) opposite.

See also

Web links

Commons : Black Friday  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nadine Dlouhy: Black numbers for retail. In: handelsjournal.de. November 28, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ International Council of Shopping Centers. Holiday Watch: Media Guide 2006 Holiday Facts and Figure ; ShopperTrak, Press Release, ShopperTrak Reports Positive Response to Early Holiday Promotions Boosts Projections for 2010 Holiday Season (November 16, 2010).
  3. ↑ ROUNDUP: Thousands of bargain hunters on Black Friday in the USA. In: boerse-online.de. November 29, 2013, accessed November 26, 2015 .
  4. ^ Black Friday Statistics & Trends. In: Fundivo.com. Retrieved November 26, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Thomas Jahn, Jana Heck: Americans break purchasing records. In: Handelsblatt . November 26, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Martin L. Apfelbaum: Philadelphia's "Black Friday" . In: American Philatelist . Vol. 69, No. January 4 , 1966, p. 239 . Online ( Memento from October 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Shopping frenzy in black. In: Saxon newspaper . November 17, 2017, archived from the original ; accessed on November 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b Mirjam Hecking: Discount battle to the brink of ruin. In: Manager Magazin . November 27, 2013, accessed November 17, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Apple cancels Black Friday in Germany. In: ZDNet . November 28, 2014, accessed November 18, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Black Friday: Five Things You Should Know About Black Friday. In: Focus Online . November 19, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  11. ↑ "Black Friday" also arrived in Germany. In: digitalfernsehen.de. November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Black Friday displaces the Christ Child. In: Handelsblatt. November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Proportion of people who know Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday in Germany in 2018. In: Statista. November 22, 2018, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Black Friday is becoming less important in the USA. In: Handelsblatt. November 28, 2014, accessed October 22, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Expected shopping records for Christmas business 2014. In: absatzwirtschaft.de. November 27, 2014, accessed October 22, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Forecast of e-commerce sales on Black Friday weekend in Germany in 2016 (in million euros). In: Statista . Retrieved October 16, 2017 .
  17. ^ Sarah Gandorfer: Germans are generous on Black Friday. In: it-business.de. November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  18. ↑ David Barthelmann: Black Friday: Only every second deal is worth it. In: onlinehaendler-news.de. November 16, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Shopping madness before Christmas: With these tips you can increase your sales on Black Friday. In: absatzwirtschaft.de. November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  20. ↑ HDE forecast: Retail sales will be 2.4 billion euros on Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. In: Einzelhandel.de. Handelsverband Deutschland, November 19, 2018, accessed on November 19, 2019 .
  21. ↑ These are the seven biggest mistakes when shopping Black Friday. In: Handelsblatt. November 21, 2019, accessed November 21, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Partial deletion in trademark law: Companies are allowed to advertise with “Black Friday”. In: Meedia . February 27, 2020, accessed March 5, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Jürgen Rupprecht: Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday: ambiguous discount days for Austrian retailers. WKO Bundessparte Handel, November 19, 2018, accessed on November 22, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Black Friday: Logo of the trade association available free of charge to all dealers. Austrian Trade Association, October 22, 2019, accessed on November 22, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Isabel Strassheim: Black Friday conquers the Swiss shops . In: 20 minutes , November 25, 2016.
  26. ↑ Ulrich Rotzinger: This is how much bargain hunters spend in just one day In: Blick (newspaper) , November 2, 2018.
  27. ^ Christoph G. Schmutz: "Black Friday" is an act of despair . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 22, 2017.
  28. ↑ Thomas Wüpper: Internet trade: With false discounts to catch customers. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . November 27, 2015, accessed November 19, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Jörg Marksteiner: Black Friday - Don't overestimate discounts. In: WDR . November 27, 2015, archived from the original on March 7, 2016 ; accessed on August 30, 2017 .