As the battle for early Christmas sales begins on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and with the popularity growing in the UK for these ?American Imports?, an online voucher code website looked to see where and why it all started. They also looked to see which the biggest day last year was for sales in the US and the UK, and how retailers are planning this year?s events to make the most of these key shopping days.
Investigating further www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk explored where both Black Friday and Cyber Monday days originated, they also looked at the number of sales across both days in 2014 and got the inside story on what some retailers are planning for them this year. They created a fun infographic showcasing everything you need to know about these two important shopping days.
Where it all started
Black Friday is the day after the Thanksgiving national holiday in US, although not an official holiday in US most people except those working in retail have it off. It is known as the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season as those taking advantage of the extra day off to head out to the shops.
The term ?Black Friday? was coined in the 1960s to mark the kick-off to the Christmas shopping season. ?Black? refers to stores moving from the ?red? to the ?black,? back when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit.
Cyber Monday however is a recent invention, the term was coined by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in 2005 after retailers saw a 77 percent increase of online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving. The media soon picked up on the new shopping phenomenon with the New York Times writing:
?The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.?
The effect Black Friday & Cyber Monday Had in the UK in 2014
- Online traffic was up by 60% year-on-year
- Online sales increased by 91%
- US saw a year-on-year traffic increase of 11.8% compared to 20.8% in the UK.
- Amazon sold approximately 64 items per second
- John Lewis enjoyed the biggest sales week on record and online revenue increased by 41%
Black Friday
- Year on Year growth for Black Friday was 140% increase
- 6 sales per second
- 5,267 clicks per minute
- UK shoppers spend ?810m on Black Friday
Cyber Monday
- Year on Year growth for Cyber Monday 32% increase
- Sales volume greatest in the evening
- Department stores saw most sales
- UK spent an estimated ?720m on Cyber Monday
What the retailers say
House of Fraser said:
?At House of Fraser we expected to see the 2014 Black Friday and Cyber Monday surpass our expectations in terms of traffic and sales, however not to the level we actually saw. Growth came from both in store and online, with mobile accounting for a large proportion of online visits pushing ourselves and other retailers to really understand the value of mobile especially over short term promotional periods. Moving 2015 to stop talking about cross device and ROPO into doing.?
Speaking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday Mark Pearson for My Voucher Codes said:
?Over the last few years we have witnessed the increase in interest from retailers looking to capitalise on the US imports of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In the US these days have significance as the key Christmas shopping days which start after their Thanks Giving celebrations, now although we don?t celebrate Thanks Giving in the UK we do like to celebrate the great savings shops have on offer!?
He added:
?Many retailers now see this as the perfect opportunity to give Christmas shopping a massive push with fantastic discounts to attract people into their shops or onto their sites to make the most of Christmas period sales. Although some places are not jumping on this bandwagon such as Asda this year we don?t see this dying down anytime soon.?
