Back in Black - Where does the future of Black Friday Lie?

2015 may be a defining year for the future of one of the world’s largest shopping days – Black Friday. To the (very few by now I would guess) uninitiated, Black Friday is the name given to the Friday that falls immediately after Thanksgiving. Traditionally Black Friday has been a retailers Mecca, through ingenious marketing campaigns and heavy discounting, crowds have been lining up outside retail stores from early dawn each and every Black Friday to splash the cash and grab a bargain.

The Black Friday annual shopping day has become so huge, that some large retailers in recent years have even begun opening their doors on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. However, this has not gone down well in all quarters, with many protests outside the shop doors lamenting retailers putting profit before the quality of family life for their employees. These lamentations have gained ground, and for the first year ever, some retail giants such as REI have bucked the trend and have stated that none of their stores will open on either Thanksgiving or Black Friday 2015 – a kind of a give back and thanks to their employees (not to mention tonnes of wonderful publicity headlines).

But it’s not just the feel good factor that may come into play for the future of Black Friday, according to BlackFriday.com the number of people who shopped both instore and online fell from 46% to 41% between 2013 and 2014. BlackFriday.com also states that the average spend per head by the Black Friday shopper has fallen steadily from $423 to $381 between 2012-2014.

With the comfort of online shopping, no queuing or waiting, new pretenders to the throne such as Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day in China, what does the future for Black Friday hold? My guess is that it is not a tradition that is going away, but rather like the omni-channel has changed the future of retail, it is a tradition that will have to be re-invented and upgraded. In this regard, I believe that the whole weekend comprising of Thanksgiving, Black Friday to Cyber Monday will become one huge festive splurge, be it instore, online or a combination of both. The retailers that will win will be the ones that combine both instore and online (e.g. purchase online and collect instore), give the same pricing and discounts trough coupons and other incentives and can work out how to give free shipping.

Are you prepared for Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving and one of the busiest shopping days in the United States. This year Cyber Monday falls on December 2, 2013. The term "Cyber Monday" was created by marketing companies and made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)".

 
Last year the Adobe Digital Index called for Cyber Monday to pass the $2 billion sales mark. The actual tally was $1.98 billion, just short. But the 2013 Online Shopping Forecast that Adobe recently released promises that the threshold will be crossed and then some this year, calling for an e-commerce tally of approximately $2.27 billion.
 
Adobe forecasts that only 2% of holiday purchases will be made via social media sites, but says that sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest don't get credit for the role they play in purchase decisions.
 
Online retailers promote Cyber Monday using a variety of Internet marketing strategies, including smart phone advertisements. Comparison shoppers with smart phones connected to the Internet can easily find the hottest deals with the press of a button. Many online retailers have apps that allow smart phone users to look up products in their store. As a result, the buyer has an opportunity to explore other online stores for steeper bargains. In addition, this breeds fierce competition that grants online shoppers discounts not found in brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday.
 
Many eCommerce stores use EDI technology to gain efficiencies in their overall supply chain operations, such as using the EDI 940/945 transaction sets to communicate electronically and efficiently with their 3^rd party warehouses or the EDI 846 transaction set to get regular updates on inventory levels from their suppliers.
 
If you would like to learn more about how B2BGateway’s EDI solutions can help improve your eCommerce supply chain efficiencies please call (401) 491 9595 or email Sales @B2BGateway.Net

 

B2BGateway.Net records 35% growth during Holiday Season 2012.

B2BGateway.Net, specialists in global EDI and eCommerce Data Integration, have just announced that they have helped client’s complete over 4,100,000 transactions during the Holiday Season 2012. This represents a 35% increase in completed transactions when compared to the same period in 2011.
 
B2BGateway.Net attributes this substantial growth to increased consumer confidence, the extended shopping period associated with online eCommerce sites and the large number of new clients who outsourced their EDI requirements to B2BGateway.Net throughout 2012.

According to Kevin Hoyle, CEO B2BGateway.Net;

“This is a great testament to the quality of solutions and customer service offered by B2BGateway.Net. The popularity of online eCommerce sites greatly extends the shopping and delivery period, with orders being accepted and shipped right up until December 23^rd. According to comScore, Cyber Monday in 2012 accounted for $1.5 billion dollars in US spending alone.  Four or five years ago most orders had to be placed and shipments received by the end of October at the very latest for the Brick & Mortar Stores.”

B2BGateway.Net is looking forward to continued growth throughout 2013 as many organizations now realize the benefits of integrating EDI with their online eCommerce stores and their third party logistics providers (3PL’s). Having full seamless EDI integration between all trading partners and the client’s ERP/Accounting software removes the need to re-key data, reduces errors and hastens the ‘order to payment’ cash cycle.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Stay Calm - Don't PANIC!

The term "Black Friday" may have originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black, (i.e., turning a profit) yeah!

 
Cyber Monday, on the other hand, is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday; the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year".  Here are a few fun and not so fun facts.

According to The National Retail Federation, shoppers spent $11.4 billion on Black Friday in 2011, and total spending over the four-day weekend following Thanksgiving reached a record $52.4 billion, which was up 16% from $45 billion the year before.  A record 226 million consumers shopped in stores and online between Thursday and Sunday, up from 212 million in 2010.  Individual shoppers spent more too, the NRF said, with the average holiday shopper shelling out $398.62 this weekend alone, which was up from $365.34 in 2010.  (Sources: moneycnn.com, shine.yahoo.com)

As most who have ever ventured out to participate in this annual ritual are likely aware, crowds abound, and people can get a bit carried away at times.  One 2011 Black Friday incident included a woman who injured 20 people at a Walmart in California while clearing her way to an X-Box display using pepper spray.  However, there are happy stories as well.  According to the New York Daily News, two individuals have Black Friday to thank for their unique love-at-first-sight story. The two lovebirds struck up conversation while standing in line at a Long Island Kmart. The small talk turned into sweet talk as the two waited in line together for a total of seven hours before doors opened. Fast forward a few years, and the couple is happily married with fond memories of the day they met.

Pretty crazy stuff. For us, at B2BGateway.Net, it’s a little less hectic, a lot more controlled. We see an enormous amount of EDI traffic on both days but we’re way more relaxed than the shoppers out there losing their minds and pepper spraying babies for video games. See, we prepare well in advance of the ensuing madness by adding and deploying virtualized servers for increased process handling. We’re seriously ready for anything. So, shop all you want and we’ll monitor the action far away from the choas. If by chance you’d like to learn a little more about our robust technical architecture, check us out. http://www.b2bgateway.net/technical_architecture.asp

Happy Holidays,

-Brian Alty

Make sure to have your Credit and Debit Cards topped up!!! Black Friday & Cyber Monday are fast approaching. Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The term dates back to at least 1966, although its usage was primarily on... the East coast. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000. Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November. According to Reuters, in 2007 135 million people participated in the Black Friday shopping rush.
The term "Black Friday" may have originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit).
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially last year on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)". In 2006, Shop.org announced that it launched the CyberMonday.com portal, a one-stop shop for Cyber Monday deals. In 2009, comScore reported that consumers spent $887M online on Cyber Monday (excluding travel), the second highest spending day of 2009.

Make sure to have your Credit and Debit Cards topped up!!! Black Friday & Cyber Monday are fast approaching. Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The term dates back to at least 1966, although its usage was primarily on... the East coast. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000. Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November. According to Reuters, in 2007 135 million people participated in the Black Friday shopping rush.
The term "Black Friday" may have originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit).
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially last year on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)". In 2006, Shop.org announced that it launched the CyberMonday.com portal, a one-stop shop for Cyber Monday deals. In 2009, comScore reported that consumers spent $887M online on Cyber Monday (excluding travel), the second highest spending day of 2009.

Make sure to have your Credit and Debit Cards topped up!!! Black Friday & Cyber Monday are fast approaching. Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The term dates back to at least 1966, although its usage was primarily on... the East coast. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000. Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November. According to Reuters, in 2007 135 million people participated in the Black Friday shopping rush.
The term "Black Friday" may have originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit).
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially last year on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)". In 2006, Shop.org announced that it launched the CyberMonday.com portal, a one-stop shop for Cyber Monday deals. In 2009, comScore reported that consumers spent $887M online on Cyber Monday (excluding travel), the second highest spending day of 2009.