“Last Friday of November.”
The term “Black Friday” dates back to the 1960s, symbolising the point in which retailers transition from being ‘in the red’ to ‘in the black’, in other words, begin to make a profit. It has since then been used to talk about the informal start of the Christmas shopping season that starts right after Thanksgiving. However, nowadays, Black Friday has become an event in which millions of shops worldwide offer discounts at the same time. The day has evolved from being a random busy day of shopping to a global phenomenon, which makes it outstanding in terms of showing the changes in consumer behaviour and the impact of retail strategies during the specific period.
When it comes to consumer behaviour, typical shopping habits have a direct relation to various psychological factors. Impulsive buying, for example, is usually triggered by emotional states and the comfort of instantaneous satisfaction, leading consumers to make unplanned purchases even if they do not have a particular need for the good or service. By creating artificial needs that often blur the differentiation between wants and necessities, marketing strategies have an important role in shaping such behaviours as well.
This phenomenon becomes specifically more apparent during mass discount events such as Black Friday, where the combined impact of continuous and sizable advertising and the sense of scarce deals compounds impulsive buying, twisting the consumer’s judgement between essentially needed and solely desired goods. Indeed, in 2021, 88 percent of customers stated that Black Friday generally promotes impulse buying. The concept of scarcity, embodied in exclusive deals for a very limited time, creates a sense of urgency which drives consumers to make rapid purchasing decisions instead of rationally considering their purchases, which they typically do. Such thinking processes result in a shopping environment that is much more intense and impulsive than normal shopping days, leading to less sensible purchasing decisions.
The introduction of online shopping to the public has inevitably transformed Black Friday on a huge scale as well. Although in-store shopping comes with physical limitations and a relatively more tangible urgency shopping, online shopping platforms offer a more expansive and less time-consuming setting. However, even in the case of a much more accessible system like online shopping, behavioural economics principles such as scarcity and urgency are still at play, showing themselves through time-limited digital flash deals. Not only that but also by using consumer data to modify offers for individual expectations, online platforms hold the power of using personalised marketing to influence purchasing decisions. The ease of clicking has led to a higher volume of purchases than those at stores during the past few years. In fact, during Black Friday 2022, 72.9 million consumers shopped in-store while the number of online shoppers was 87.2 million, solely in the United States. Such a shift towards online shopping during Black Friday highlights the adaptation of consumer behaviour to the digital age.
Lately, Black Friday has been facing increasing criticism for promoting excessive consumerism, increasing waste, and putting pressure on employees in the industry. From a behavioural economics point of view, the event, by its nature, depends entirely on overconsumption since buyers are dragged by discounts to purchase more than what they actually need. Such a consumption craze has visible environmental impacts, ranging from an increase in packaging waste to a higher carbon footprint per person. In fact, research shows that up to 80 percent of goods bought on Black Friday, including their packaging, are thrown away after a few uses. Besides these, the focus on profit by firms places significant stress on workers who are often required to work for extended hours under challenging conditions. These ethical considerations underscore the need to find an optimal balance between consumer psychology, economic development, and ethical values to avoid the rise of concerns regarding sustainability and morality.
Black Friday is a perfect example when it comes to showing the relationship between behavioural economics and consumer behaviour. The event pinpoints the impact of various psychological triggers on typical shopping habits. Online shopping, by offering relatively more convenience and personalised offers, has brought a new extent to those behaviours. Still, the encouragement of consumerism as well as the impact on the environment and retail workers are topics of criticism. In the upcoming future, we might see a much more sustainable handling of Black Friday, due to different reasons such as potential increases in online shopping and a growing consumer awareness of sustainability issues.
References
Gopalkrishnan, Blut, Xiao, Grewal (2020). Impulse buying: a meta-analytic review. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 48, 384–404
Potturi, Keerthan (2021). Black Friday A study of consumer behaviour and sales predictions.
Inman (2022). Record 196.7 Million Consumers Shop Over Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend
Lennon, Kim, Lee, Johnson (2018). Consumer Emotions on Black Friday: Antecedents and Consequences. Journal of Research for Consumers 32
Glynn (2022). Targeting consumers this Black Friday
Peake, Brandmayr (2019). Building a circular economy
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