2017 Black Friday Trends and Predictions
Last year was the first year I was sharing deals and watching trends… but I felt pretty sure I could make some assumptions and predictions. So let’s see how I did!!
Cyber Deals Starting on or Before Thanksgiving
According to Practical Ecommerce Magazine, online sales topped in person sales in 2015 for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. Not only that, the brick and mortar sales were down more than a BILLION dollars. Yep, and you can bet the retailers are taking note of that trend! Many stores were given lots of grief for opening their doors on Thanksgiving last year… but this year, since the online sales were so strong, they really have nothing to lose for starting their cyber sales early and foregoing the fuss over opening their brick and mortar doors. So I expect we will see lots of cyber deals on Turkey Day and fewer in person ones. It will be interesting to see if this actually happens.
So for 2016, apparently there was no shortage of people to buy, but they didn’t open their wallets as much as 2015. I think I can tell you why…. the deals were just not that great! Because I watch the sales all year, I know when a product is a great deal and the deals were AWOL last year! People still bought, but the purchases were not as big. If Amazon and the other online retailers continue to be stingy with the great deals for 2017, we just may see another sluggish sales year!
Purchases Were Not Spur-of-the-Moment
Since so many of the ads are leaked earlier and earlier each year, most of us are investing time into researching the sales and are actually prioritizing the deals we want to grab. In fact, 70% of retailers promoted Black Friday deals before Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Almost 4 out of 10 pushed these same offers live to consumers prior to Black Friday. But this level of research is par for the course with homeschool moms. We don’t tend to be spur-of-the-moment shoppers anyway. We are savvy deal hunters and will be especially vigilant in the hunt through the holidays.
Brand Loyalty Will Become a BIG Deal
The predictions for 2017 are saying that most of us are shopping online instead of venturing out to the stores. I expect this trend will continue even more so in 2017. There have been too many crazy things happening leading up to the holidays this year. I foresee lots of families opting to shop online and just avoid the public domain and the dangers that go along with it. And especially since the deals are already all over the internet now, it will be hard to get noticed over all the noise. Again, I expect brands to be aggressively courting their loyal customers via membership benefits and repeat customer deals shared via their subscriber email lists. So if you have a brand that you just love, be sure to join their newsletter list to get the inside scoop on all of their sales and deals.
Location, Location, Location… Home Is Hard to Beat
So much for Location, Location, Location … at least for the big after=Thanksgiving push. Most of us prefer the luxury of shopping with our comfy pants on anyway, but even more so after the Thanksgiving Feast, right?!!? I know I do! So it wouldn’t matter if that brick and mortar building was in my backyard, I still would prefer to be in my house, in my yoga pants, hunting deals, thank you!
But let’s be real! What we all REALLY want to know is… What are the best deals for homeschoolers?
I’ll share that list soon!!
