For years, Black Friday signaled the beginning of Christmas shopping. The day after Thanksgiving was a frantic day of driving to the store at the crack of dawn to fight off other shoppers for great deals. For people who truly hated the ritual, I have some good news for you: Black Friday is going away.
That’s according to data from GPShopper, which tracks consumer behavior. It turns out, customers are really not into Black Friday. A full 81% of us feel stress around the holiday shopping season in general, with 45% of us marking Black Friday as the most stressful time to shop.
And with online shopping, consumers are increasingly realizing they don’t need to do all their shopping on one day. The majority would prefer to shop in the second week of December. Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalize on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
This change in consumer behavior is prompting brands to follow suit, according to Maya Mikhailov, GPShopper’s co-founder and CMO. “Brands are stretching out their holiday shopping to respond to when consumers actually want to shop,” she says. “This means that instead of having holiday shopping compressed into one day or one weekend, it is being stretched out throughout the holidays.”
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
