Americans have perceived the day after Thanksgiving as the start of the Christmas shopping season for decades. Shops offer great discounts, which led Americans to wait in big lines for them to open. Up to the point where they would even camp outside to be the first one inside. The discount hype has led to big discounts at European stores in recent years as well. How will this traditional discount hype look like in a world that has been home and will be home for a while due to COVID-19, aka Black Friday 2020?
No more in-store only deals
Black Friday and physical stores used to go hand in hand, but this year will be different. COVID-19 demands changes. Stores are likely to encourage us to shop online rather than offline. In the United States big retailers such as Walmart, Target and Best Buy have already announced that their stores will be closed on thanksgiving. Quite a change compared to last year.
Walmart during Black Friday 2018
39% more expected sales
COVID-19 has changed the daily routine of many. The office desk is replaced with the kitchen table, colleagues with our pets & families and events with stay at home nights. How does this affect the purchasing behaviour of people? Research done by Black Friday Nederland shows that 39 percent of Dutch customers expect to spend more money compared to last year. Notable that 33,9 percent of these people expect to spend at least €400 euros more. The two main reasons found for people to spend more money are both related to COVID-19. They expect better deals and have more money to spend as of the current situation.
More sales + no in store deals = ecommerce craziness
Ecommerce, get ready! If sales will indeed rise to new heights and offline stores will be discouraged, online stores will need to be prepared for loads of visitors (remember that Walmart pic above? Well, much more than that!).
It is very important to make sure that your shop can handle all these extra visitors in order to be well prepared for the holidays. It’s your time to shine! Down below you can find some articles in which we explain how to prepare your shop.
- How to make sure your shop is in top condition
- How to prepare your Magento shop for traffic peaks
- Upgrade your Hypernode at minimal cost temporarily
Don’t want to worry about hosting? Let us unburden you with the Holiday Hype. You will be able to fully focus on your own campaign and we’ll take care of the hosting hassle. Sign up deadline: November 19!
Want to know more about the effect of COVID-19 on ecommerce? Check out this article.
Hi! My name is Dion, Account Manager at Hypernode
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