“Black Friday” in the United States will debut on Friday (25th). Retailers expect to attract people back as the impact of the epidemic fades. However, preliminary indications are that the crowds outside physical stores in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places are still sparse, reflecting inflationary pressures and the effects of bad weather.
Consumers surveyed said they are buying strategically this year, rather than making impulsive or splurge purchases.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 166.3 million people planned to go shopping between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year, nearly 8 million more than this time last year. However, the rain in some parts of the United States has caused the crowds of Black Friday to not be as hot as in previous years.
Marshal Cohen, chief industry consultant of NPD Group, observed the situation in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia stores and said: “A lot of them are social shopping. Everyone only buys what is necessary, and there is no atmosphere of rushing to shop.”
Outside the American Dream store in East Rutherford, New Jersey, there is no line, and a Toys ‘R’ Us employee is pulling up a banner a Black Friday sale.
But shoppers who entered the store were surprised by the magnitude of the discounts. “There were a lot of unadvertised discounts out there,” said Chavez, 45. “Everything I bought at some store was 50% off. I didn’t really want to go out, but I have to say, the on-site discounts were eye-catching. “
Many consumers who entered the store for the latest high-end iPhone failed, reflecting Apple (AAPL-US) Availability is restricted due to the Chinese lockdown.
Many people still prefer online shopping
There are also many consumers who choose to participate in the Black Friday discounts on the Internet because it is more convenient. According to statistics from Adobe Analytics, the amount of online shopping on Thanksgiving this year increased by nearly 3%, with mobile shopping as the main force.
Retailers are offering deep discounts this year both online and at brick-and-mortar stores, likely hurting their fourth-quarter profits.
According to Salesforce, online discounts averaged 29% this year, 6% more than last year. That helped drive sales up 3 percent to $7.1 billion.
Walmart (WMT-US) strengthened its marketing efforts, bought a lot of advertisements on Twitter and IG, and also placed a lot of advertisements at New York City Station and NFL American Football.
Amazon (AMZN-US) also has plenty of great deals like 42% off Roomba vacuums, 45% off Calvin Klein T-shirts, Lenovo, HP (HPQ-US),Acer (2353-TW), ASUS (2357-TW) Chromebooks are down 50%.
