For the fifth year in a row, Black Friday marked the biggest shopping day of the year in Denmark, and studies show that almost half of the Danes (47%) took advantage of a Black Friday deal in 2019 (YouGov). The turnover ratio for this year’s Black Friday has not been published, but calculations from DIBS reveal that online sales increased by 57% compared to last year’s Black Friday (RetailNews).
When we look overseas, the National Retail Federation expected 165 million people shopping in stores and online during the weekend of Black Friday 2019 in the US (NBC News). When we take stock of this year’s event, e-commerce retailers are the big winners. Adobe Analytics reveals a digital sale up nearly 20% compared to last year, hitting $7.4 billion in the US, which is the largest online Black Friday sale ever. This also makes online shopping the most preferred way to shop (Forbes).
In-store visitor traffic
Let’s take a look at our domain: the development of in-store visitor traffic. Based on a representative sample of our customers’ traffic data, we can reveal that the Danish shopping malls experienced an increase of 3% this year compared to Black Friday in 2018. In turn, the traffic in brick-and-mortar stores decreased by -4%. Since many retailers extended Black Friday to Black Week, we have taken a closer look at how the week in general performed compared to the rest of the year.
The Danish shopping malls welcomed more visitors during Black Week than the average for the weekdays during the year. Black Friday shows a significant increase with 123% more traffic compared to an average Friday. This trend continued for Saturday and Sunday.
Brick-and-mortar stores experienced a slight decrease in visitor traffic first part of Black Week compared to an average week. Black Friday shows a significant visitor count of 271% compared to an average Friday. An increase also applies for the following Saturday and Sunday.
As the Danish shopping malls hit the record in visitor traffic, things were not so sunny in the US. Looking at the in-store shopping activity across tens of thousands of stores, the results show that in-store traffic for brick-and-mortar stores and malls was down 2.1%, average transaction values dropped 6.7%, and overall sales declined 1.6% (Forbes).
The opinions are many
The opinions of the original American “shopping holiday” are divided – and many people probably experienced an ambivalent feeling this day. Even though most people worldwide took advantage of a Black Friday deal in 2019, few people like this day and its concept. According to a survey produced by YouGov Analysis Institute, two out of five Danes believe that Black Friday supports overconsumption. We also saw climate protests around the world (NBC News). At the same time, the day after Thanksgiving, namely Black Friday, has traditionally been regarded as the beginning of the US's holiday shopping season. 32% of the Danes also perceive this day as a good opportunity to buy the first Christmas presents (YouGov).
