Non-existent with us a few years ago, “black friday” has become an essential commercial tradition a few weeks before Christmas. This “Black Friday” which comes to us from the United States takes place on the Friday following Thanksgiving, this year November 25th. On this occasion, stores display knock-down prices to attract customers a few weeks before the end-of-year celebrations.
But are these promotions real promotions? Or just announcement effects to attract the barge in a hollow moment between the start of the school year and Christmas? To find out, we focused on one type of product: televisions. From mid-October to the end of November, we regularly collected prices on the sites of five major retailers.
Our methodology was as follows: select the page of the “most popular” televisions at Fnac, Mediamarkt, Amazon, Coolblue, Bol and Vandenborre in order to save the first 20 results from the list. A statement that we made every 2 or 3 days. Here’s what we learned.
A general observation is clear: the prices of many products highlighted during Black Friday were indeed reduced compared to previous weeks. At some brands, this “black Friday” even started well before November 25. “From Monday, November 14, you can once once more find great deals during the Black Friday weeks on our website and in our stores.“, wrote Mediamarkt on its website.
And the sign was true for several products. Take this 43-inch LG TV for example. It cost 449 euros in mid-October. In early November, it fell to 429 euros to crash from November 14 to 366 euros, almost 15% reduction. Tuesday, November 29, the “black friday” label had disappeared from this product which had returned to 429 euros (and obviously the discount seduced customers since there was only one piece left in stock).
But some good deals aren’t always good deals. Our colleagues from the DH reported a few days ago the case of a dishwasher going from 629 to 1129 euros during November to return to 629 euros during the “black week“. Response from the brand: “The amount of €1129 is simply the recommended price for this product, not the reference price crossed out in the context of a price reduction announcement. The prices of our products are fixed according to the market, so these can sometimes fluctuate. This explains the evolution of the price of this product.“
