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Battling The Black Friday Black Eye.


By: Ray Chelstowski / Hilton Barbour

It comes as little surprise that fewer US shoppers – a whopping drop of 28.3% versus 2019 - visited retail stores this season for the annual Black Friday bonanza. While it’s likely COVID fears drove some of the decision to stay away, for struggling retailers, the double-whammy of supply chain issues and inventory stock outs meant that the consumer appeal of historically crowded, frenetic malls just wasn’t there.

In addition, concerns about the US economy and the volatility of the job market were likely partially responsible for the increase in consumers paying cash or debit for their purchases versus the traditional behavior of buying on credit. 

Even online sales on Black Friday contracted from $9bn in 2020 to $8.8bn this year. Though Adobe is forecasting e-commerce sales on Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, to be between $10.2bn and $11.3bn.

What is also emerging as a trend is that consumers aren’t concentrating their buying in the period between US Thanksgiving and Christmas as has been the case for several years. In fact, more Americans now begin their shopping as early as October, even online. According to a survey from the US National Retail Federation, the retail industry’s leading trade group, 61% of consumers had already started purchasing holiday gifts before Thanksgiving.

For many of us who watch the sector closely, these changes are critical to pay attention to. For many, these changing behaviors require both a strategic and operational adjustment from Retailers and the marketers they employ.

For one, the appeal of “going it alone” is becoming harder and harder for organizations. Peer-to-peer collaboration allows organizations to augment the value they can provide consumers (typically a straight line to incremental growth and loyalty) but also the depth of insights on those consumers by working with non-competitive brands directly.

Secondly, participating in an ever-growing ecosystem of collaborating partners enables marketers to be more creative and adaptive with the offers and rewards they can source but it also gives them access to new funding and new channels too.

Lastly, if you thought online was your salvation from a rocky Black Friday in 2021, wait for the impact of the cookie-less future which is fast approaching. Progressive organizations – especially Retailers who are incredibly reliant on online traffic and sales – are looking to Zero-Party Data as the only way to build genuine, insightful, and loyal relationships with their consumers. Zero-Party Data is a pivotal component of the peer-to-peer collaboration layered into the Kognitiv solution.

The Retail sector has a justifiable reputation for adapting and evolving to whatever the market can throw at it. And there’s no doubt they’ve had a lot thrown at them in the past two years. What this year’s Black Friday results suggest is that we’re in the midst of yet another round of consumer retail behavior change. Wouldn’t you want to go into the next round with a group of peers and allies?     

ray.chelstowski@kognitiv.com

hilton.barbour@kognitiv.com


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