Black Friday 2020 : how to maximize the impact of your commercial actions?

This year’s Black Friday will officially start on November 27th 2020! You are preparing yourself to launch your best promotional offers and convert as many consumers as possible. Business has been very impacted by the sanitary crisis this year, which makes this edition of the Black Friday unprecedented. Some brands are hoping to boost this year’s sales and try to compensate business losses due to the crisis. However, to do so, they will have to apprehend their clients’ new expectations, as their consumption behaviour also has been impacted by the crisis! 

The Black Friday : an American creation

The Black Friday was created in the United-States in 1930 in order to reboost the country’s economy after the Great Depression of 1929. Ever since, the event is taking place each year the day after Thanksgiving, which is the last Friday of November, historically in physical points of sales. On this occasion, brands offer big discounts on every type of product during 24 hours, allowing consumers to start their Christmas shopping while raising store traffic and their sales. 

Traditionally, the Black Friday lasted only a day. However, the benefits for some brands can be so high that it often leads them to extend the commercial actions online to the next monday : Cyber Monday. The main difference between the traditional American Black Friday and the European version is that in Europe, discounts are available online and offline from the start. That’s why in France we sometimes call it Cyber Week!

The price war?

Black Friday is, historically, the opportunity for the consumers to buy at a lower cost. Even on products rarely discounted such as computers, home appliances, cars, etc.!

©Richardson Ford

A survey made in September 2020 for Click2Buy by OpinionWay about French consumer’s expectations after the crisis showed us that price remains an important criteria for the consumer.

That is in order to fulfill their expectation for low prices that brands build communication campaigns based on the exceptional discounts of the Black Friday. Banners, display, newsletters, social media posts, flyers… Communications take every possible shape to offer high percentages of discount, scales discounts, free delivery… The goal is to convert by creating an emergency and even exclusivity sensation. Nonetheless, we recommend that the most central element of the event remains to adapt your brand to your consumers’ needs to successfully interest them in your products. 

Our French consumption trends survey with OpinionWay states that even if the price remains very important to 55% of the people interviewed, the main concern of the french consumers is now reliability : with 64% of concerns. That’s why we would recommend that this year’s Black Friday should allow brands to offer reliable products at a discounted price. But one could wonder : will offering reliable products be enough to boost this year’s lower sales level?

New challenges to consider!

The rise of the “Green Friday” in opposition to the Black Friday, along with our survey, confirm the fact that consumers are now expecting more than low prices for this year’s event. 

These types of “Green movements” have multiplied around the globe with different names. In France for example, “Green Friday” was created as soon as 2017. Its goal is to sensitize consumers to the impulsive consumption that revolves around this commercial event, which can implicate nefast consequences on the planet and our society. 

The members of the movement promote reparation of damaged goods, donations, local shopping, solutions to extend the life of the products… A responsible consumption in opposition to a massive one at lower costs, that can induce a delocalized overproduction. That philosophy is followed by brands like REI, an American retailer which offers its employees a day off on every Black Friday to enjoy being outdoors instead of opening the company to consumers on this day.

©REI Co-op

Our survey confirms the rise of consumers aware of these types of matters since the sanitary crisis. Indeed, 86% of the French consumers stated that the level of energy consumption of a product is important to them, 57% think that a reconditioned product offer with a warranty would make them buy faster, and for 59% of the population the carbon footprint is a decision-making criteria. 

Consumer-centric preoccupations

As you already understood, in this unprecedented year where consumption habits deeply changed, consumers are paying more and more attention to their purchases. That is why their expectations regarding brands evolved too ! We are recommending the brands to prepare their 2020 Black Friday trying to incorporate these changes in their campaigns, so that they can maximize the impact of their commercial actions. 

So do not hesitate to show the efforts your brand is making in favor of the environment! As is already doing Patagonia, which is an American outdoor clothing company, members of the “1% for the Planet” movement. They gave 100% of their Black Friday benefits to environmental organizations representing $10 million:

©Patagonia

Don’t forget that communicating about your brand’s eco-friendly efforts and exceptional discounts at the same time is possible for the Black Friday ! For example, you could offer second-hand products at a low price for this year’s event !

We also advise you to extend your products’ life by offering reparation services, setup help and/or information about the availability of spare parts. This will reassure your clients and will allow them to get a better financial deal (by investing only once in years), while giving them the opportunity of a more sustainable consumption (opposed to a disposable product). 

Finally, how about offering live tests in your physical stores ? You will raise your traffic by limiting the number of returned products ! The bonus ? Testing will lower your customers’ dissatisfaction.

Want to hear more about our data on consumer behaviour ? Let’s get in touch !