Market Track PerspectiveTM
Black Friday: Shoppers Drive Evolution
Retailers adapt to shopper preferences by starting early and going multi-channel
In This Article…
Market Track takes a high level
look at the activity leading up
to Black Friday and how retailers
and manufacturers leveraged the
various contributing factors to
performance:
I
•
Calendar of multi-media
promotions by retailer
•
Complementary and
supplementary tactics
•
Category focus by media type
•
Interplay of media types
•
Online price fluctuations
•
TV promoted price points and
manufacturer focus
t’s the moment of truth for the retail industry—the five to six week period between
• HSS actionable insights for
Thanksgiving and New Year’s when nearly a quarter of annual sales can be realized.
the rest of the season
Changing shopping habits have retailers and manufacturers exploring more
promotional tactics than ever, trying to appeal to a shopper who is exercising all of
For a deeper look at your trade
their options in finding the hottest holiday deals. Gone are the days of simply pushing
class or category contact your
out Black Friday circulars on Thanksgiving; shoppers are now in control of how, when,
account team or email us at
and where they access promotions and make holiday purchases.
[email protected]
Where Black Friday used to be a single day event and required the shopper to go instore, well-connected shoppers are now able to get select Doorbusters and Black Friday
deals starting on or before Thanksgiving day, both in-store and online, using everything from their computers, to smartphones, to
tablets to gather information and make their purchases. A survey conducted by Shop.org reported that over half of retailers that
participate in Black Friday planned to start their Thanksgiving weekend online promotions at least five days before the holiday
weekend. What’s more, as we called out in our Early Black Friday Trend Report, almost 60% of shoppers planned to begin looking for
holiday deals and promotions at least 2-3 weeks prior to Black Friday (Market Track Shopper Insight Survey).
Retailers understood the importance of starting their Thanksgiving and Black Friday promotions earlier in 2013, given the
shortened window for attracting and incenting shoppers to spend their allocated holiday budgets with them. There are only 26
days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, and Hanukkah also started early, falling on Thanksgiving Day, which provided
retailers additional cause for starting their promotional campaigns early. Many of the Black Friday news headlines confirmed
that shoppers did go to stores and websites prior to Black Friday, causing traffic numbers on Friday to suffer. Reuters mused, “Will
Thanksgiving shopping binge become Black Friday hangover,” while MSNBC described Thanksgiving as, “not just a Black Friday warm
up,” each alluding to Thanksgiving becoming the new Black Friday.
With the traffic on Thanksgiving impacting the number of shoppers on Black Friday, some retailers used innovative multi-channel
promotional tactics to try to further entice shoppers to come to their stores on Friday. Office Depot, for example, emailed and sent
www.markettrack.com
SMS messages to their opt-in shoppers an additional $20 off
in-store, Black Friday tablet purchases on top of the discounted
prices found in their circular. Shoppers were potentially driving
in-the-moment evolution for Office Depot on Black Friday.
Initial retail traffic and sales results show that the early
promotional push in 2013 led to significant growth on
Thanksgiving Day. The National Retail Federation reported
a 27% rise in Thanksgiving Day foot traffic year over year. A
separate release from ShopperTrak reported a 2.3% increase in
sales for Thanksgiving and Black Friday combined, yet revenue
on Black Friday alone dropped 13.2% compared to 2012. Online
spending on Thanksgiving also soared, breaking the $1 billion
mark for the first time. IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark reported
that Thanksgiving online sales were up 19.7% compared to 2012,
while Black Friday saw an 18.9% spike. Mobile sales (transactions
on mobile devices from smartphones to tablets) increased even
more dramatically on Thanksgiving, growing 49% year over year,
and accounting for 25.8% of total online sales.
Several retail channels also anticipated promising
Thanksgiving results after massive crowds surged in-store
and online to take advantage of their Thanksgiving sales.
Mass merchants Walmart and Target claimed that their traffic
numbers were strong both in-store and online, according to a
Bloomberg report. Walmart saw more than 10 million register
transactions between 6pm and 10pm on Thanksgiving evening,
along with 400 million page views on Walmart.com throughout
Thanksgiving Day.
As early traffic and sales figures have shown, shoppers
started making their holiday purchases earlier in 2013 than in
previous years. Shoppers also accessed promotions earlier, more
often, and across more media types than ever before, which
introduces a great deal of complexity, as well as opportunity,
for those retailers and
manufacturers who
In Market Track’s Shopper
know their audience
and can stand out in
Insight Survey, 80% of
this hyper-competitive
respondents indicated they
market. This is a tall
are more likely to open emails
order, though, as
from retailers during the
today’s shopper poses
Holiday Shopping Season
challenges that make
marketing to them
especially difficult. These challenges include differing paths to
purchase for every shopper, the ease with which a shopper can
abandon a purchase in-store in favor of transacting online, and
the prominence of unpredictable, cross-channel shopping.
Retailers cannot afford a misstep on Black Friday weekend, as
they risk losing the sale and the shopper longer term. The ability
to engage shoppers when they want with what they want is
integral to winning their transactions at the store or .com online
property, and there has been a large push on the part of retailers
to make the shopping experience convenient and consistent
regardless of where the interaction takes place.
In this Perspective, we will take a look across retail
2
Market Track PerspectiveTM
Figure 1: Multi-channel Black Friday Promotions by
Day (green indicates days that the retailer promoted
Black Friday messaging across print, email, Twitter, and
Facebook)
channels to understand who executed a multi-channel
promotional campaign that provided shoppers the right value
and convenience to make their holiday purchases when, where,
and how they prefer. Additionally, we will review different
promotional tactics used by retailers to set themselves up for
success during the remainder of the holiday season, knowing
that the lull experienced in 2012 cannot be relived.
Cadence varies, but multi-channel promotion universal
The Black Friday event this year featured the largest multichannel promotional effort ever. Within Market Track’s Black
Friday analysis retail panel (see Figure 1), print promotional
volumes remained fairly consistent from 2012, with the
vast majority of retailers publishing one print circular on
Thanksgiving, and a small group of retailers including Macy’s
and Sears pushing an additional circular on Black Friday. The
print circular is still rated as one of the top ways shoppers look
Promotional
efficacy varies
by age group for
promotions during
the HSS. Print is
still a large driver
for the majority
of shoppers, but
websites and email
have become
very influential,
particularly
among younger
demographics.
Source: Market Track Online Shopper Insight Survey
Figure 2: Promotional efficacy by age group and media type
for deals, as shown in Figure 2, although online has gained
prevalence in the younger demographics. Retailers such as Office
Depot, Kohl’s and Walmart used a cross-channel promotional
approach to ensure that any shopper, regardless of their
preferences, could conveniently gather the information needed
to plan their Black Friday Shopping trip.
Figure 1 shows a daily multi-channel ad calendar for major
retailers across the Mass, Department, Office, Electronics, Home,
and Specialty channels during the week of Black Friday. For each
retailer, the calendar calls out on which days they pushed a print
Circular
Email
Mobile
Shopper
Facebook
Twitter
Website
Figure 3: Walmart multi-channel Black Friday promotions
or email promotion, or
promoted a Black Fridayspecific product, price,
offer, or information about
their Black Friday event
on Facebook or Twitter.
A variety of different
strategies were used
Email
regarding promotional
velocity—some promoted
Black Friday across multiple
Circular
media types each day
Facebook
leading up to and on
Black Friday, while others
Figure 4: The Home Depot
saved their multi-channel
multi-channel Black Friday
promotions for Thanksgiving promotions
and Black Friday.
Among those retailers
that had the highest frequency and most regular outreach
through multi-channel promotions were Walmart, Sears, Best
Buy, Toys R Us, h.h. Gregg, and Office Depot. Each of these six
retailers promoted Black Friday messaging across at least two of
the four media types every day of Black Friday week. Walmart
put particular emphasis on regular multi-channel promotional
engagement, posting all of the information for their Black
Friday event to their Facebook wall and Twitter feed on Monday,
Tuesday, and Thursday of Black Friday week. The posts included
store opening times, a link to their Black Friday circular, store
maps, and a list of their “1-Hour Guarantee Deals” (see Figure
3). These informational posts and tweets were intermixed with
specific product offers and prices from each of Walmart’s three
Black Friday events.
By comparison, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kmart, and Macy’s
each executed a lighter multi-channel promotional pattern
during Black Friday week than the previously discussed retailers.
The Power of Market Intelligence
3
day basis planning their shopping trip may engage better with
The Home Depot’s promotional tactics.
Despite varying strategies for promotions during the week
of Black Friday 2013, this is the first year in which retailers from
every vertical delivered a multi-channel promotional message
that spanned beyond just print, websites, and email, but also
into social and other digital media that different shopper
segments use to find deals. This evolution is indicative of the
growing understanding among retailers that today’s shopper
has a seemingly unlimited number of paths to purchase, and
the realization that they may lose shoppers if they fail to engage
them across multiple paths.
Figure 5: Category focus by media type (top categories,
key pages—green indicates retailers that maintained the
same category focus across at least three media types on
Black Friday)
Opposing strategies for category promotions
Depending on the message a retailer is trying to send their
shopper base, one retailer may feature the same category mix
at the same frequency across each of their promotional media,
while another may use each media type as a platform for
promoting different categories. A cohesive strategy between
media types offers all shopper segments a similar view of
a retailer’s value proposition, whereas a disparate category
strategy will deliver different value propositions to different
shopper segments. Promotional strategies that fit both of these
profiles were seen on Black Friday this year. In the next section,
we will review which retailers delivered cohesive or disparate
promotional messages across print front and back pages, website
home pages, email promotions, and social media posts and
tweets.
Figure 5 illustrates the top categories or category groups
promoted on feature pages, by retailer, across print and digital
media. Of the 16 retailers reviewed, Kmart, Toys R Us, The Home
Depot, Lowe’s, and Staples delivered the most cohesive category
messaging across all media. Kmart and Toys R Us each promoted
Toys most prominently across three of the four media types,
The Home Depot and Lowe’s featured Hardware categories, and
Staples featured Computers.
Toys R Us was especially deliberate in their approach,
promoting many of the same Toy items on their home page,
email promotions, and social media platforms in the days leading
up to and on Black Friday. Figure 6 shows the LeapFrog Leapster
was featured on Toys R Us’ Facebook page on 11/26 at $39.99,
and again in an email on Friday at $10 cheaper. Not only did
Toys R Us push the Toys category consistently across their digital
promotional media, but also took advantage of the quickresponse email provides to reach shoppers with a price drop on
one of their Black Friday deals.
At the other end of the spectrum, h.h. gregg
and Sears featured more disparate strategies
across media types. On their print front cover,
website home page, email promotions, and
social media sites, h.h. gregg promoted a
different focus category in each case. A shopper
looking at the print front page for h.h. gregg
would perceive that they can find great deals
The Home Depot (Wednesday, 11/27) and Macy’s (Monday,
11/25) each went one day without pushing any Black Friday
promotional messaging in print, email, or social media, and there
were at least two days during which all four retailers promoted in
one promotional media type or did not
promote at all. The Home Depot’s waited
until Thanksgiving to promote their event
in print and email, and until Black Friday
to promote their event across Facebook,
and Twitter (the emails on 11/25, 11/26
and 11/27 were their regular “Special Buy
of the Day” promotions).
The dichotomy between the cadence
of Walmart and The Home Depot multichannel promotions exemplifies how
drastically retailer promotional strategies can
differ, and how each strategy has its advantages in
attracting shoppers to their stores. Shoppers who
spend a lot of time planning out their Black Friday,
checking for deals from multiple sources daily,
may be driven to make a purchase by Walmart’s
strategy, whereas a shopper that knows what they
want in advance who spends less time on a day-toFigure 6: Toys R Us’ cohesive Black Friday promotional messaging
4
Market Track PerspectiveTM
Figure 7: Best Buy Black Friday themes interplay between media types
on Major Appliances and select Electronics items on Black
Friday, whereas a shopper looking at h.h. gregg’s website or
email promotions would find the Electronics deals on TVs and
Tablets, but may not view h.h. gregg as a destination for Major
Appliances.
Sears was another example
Knowing when to
of a varied approach—they
leveraged print to promote
promote across various
Hardware, website and email
media types is key—the
media to promote Major
majority of respondents
Appliances, and social media
to Market Track’s
to focus on Footwear. This
Shopper Insight Survey
made for a wide range of
category promotions hitting
indicated they prefer to
different shopper segments
receive email and social
through different promotional
media promotions
media. Contrasting Sears’
Monday-Thursday.
Black Friday category
promotional strategy against
that of Toys R Us illuminates how different retailers approach
getting shoppers to their stores for the big holiday event. Using
a cohesive promotional strategy, like Toys R Us, ensures that
each shopper segment you reach, regardless of which media
types they use to gather information and/or deals, will have the
same understanding of which products they can come to your
stores to purchase at a great value. A more disparate approach,
like that executed by Sears on Black Friday, may send a mixed
promotional message to shoppers, which can prove effective,
particularly if the retailer knows their shoppers well enough to
target their print audience with one message, knowing that the
same category promotion may not resonate with the segment
of their shopper base that uses email or social media. The choice
between a cohesive or disparate strategy should be a calculated
decision based on a retailer’s knowledge of both their offers and
their audience.
Strategic interplay between media types
Beyond simply choosing a particular multi-channel promotional
cadence, or a cohesive or disparate strategy for category
allocation, many retailers effectively communicated their holiday
and Black Friday promotional themes and value messaging across
all media types. In some cases, print promotional messaging
linked up with the retailer’s email messaging, and also with their
TV and mobile promotions that were peppering consumers over
the course of November. These retailers played the benefits of
certain media types to their advantage, alerting shoppers of
The Power of Market Intelligence
5
Figure 8: Percent of products that changed price online,
November 15-29, 2013*
new or additional Black Friday deals via email and their website,
delivering store hours via mobile or print, and more.
Best Buy was one retailer that interplayed a myriad of
promotional media, surrounding shoppers with a proactive,
promotional message across all media types (See Figure 7).
Beginning in late October, Best Buy kicked off their holiday
promotional campaign with a TV ad labeling the electronics
retailer as, “Your Ultimate Holiday Showroom.” After the TV
ad ran, Best Buy used the subsequent weeks to support the
same theme in their print and digital media platforms, inviting
customers in-store to examine the products and educate
themselves on Best Buy’s deals and offers. Throughout each
media type, Best Buy provided shoppers the option to transact
on the deal they found either in-store or online, whichever
destination was more convenient.
Best Buy then used the same strategy, albeit in a more
congested time period, on the week of Black Friday. They
published a print promotion with “Early Doorbusters” on the
Sunday prior to Black Friday, and throughout the week of Black
Friday, they promoted the early deals across their digital media
platforms. Their Black Friday ad dropped on Thanksgiving,
outlining their top Black Friday deals, and throughout the day
on Black Friday, Best Buy engaged shoppers with several digital
promotions either posted to their website, or pushed to shoppers
via email, alerting them to either “New” or “Additional” Black
Friday deals beyond those outlined in their 11/28 print circular.
For almost a full month before Black Friday, Best Buy engaged
their shopper base through a combined use of print, digital,
mobile, and TV media to ensure that their shoppers were wellinformed of everything from their store hours, to the ability to
transact on Black Friday deals either in-store or online, to new
updates, alerts, or price changes on Black Friday. The interplay
between these media types afforded shoppers an experience
of convenience if they shopped at Best Buy, and illustrates the
importance of using multiple media types in different ways to
engage shoppers throughout their purchase cycle.
Online pricing more dynamic than ever
In the previous section, we discussed how Best Buy leveraged
their online and email promotional platforms as a quick-action,
or quick-response tool on Black Friday. With Black Friday deals
released and available to shoppers earlier in 2013 than ever
before, there was also more opportunity for retailers who found
they were beat on either price, store hours, or assortment to
make adjustments to their strategy to try to proactively correct
course. Many of these strategy changes were seen in the online
marketplace.
Figure 9: Percent of products that changed price online,
November 15-29, 2013*
In the case of Kmart, price changes on 11/24
were actually increases, not decreases.
Kmart increased the online price of roughly
45% of their Black Friday basket on 11/24.
Consistent monitoring of online prices allows
for course modification, if needed, when your
competition adjusts their pricing.
Figure 10: Daily average percent increase/decrease in
online prices, Kmart, November 15-29, 2013*
* Based on a basket of items from Black Friday print circular front page, back page, and select interior pages
6
Market Track PerspectiveTM
TV price
points jumped
dramatically on
2012
the front page in
2013—retailers
were looking to highlight
the best value as opposed
to lowest price
Figure 11: Median pricing and sizing by retailer, Digital TVs, Black Friday 2013
Figure 8 shows the percent of products at the six retailers
listed for which the online (or e-commerce) price changed at
some point between November 15th and 29th. The basket of
products examined was taken from each retailers’ Black Friday
circular front pages, back pages, and select interior pages. All
six retailers changed the online price of the majority of these
products during the two weeks leading up to Black Friday. Kmart
made changes to a whopping 98.1% of products—the largest
percentage in the group—while Walmart adjusted price on
56.1% of products during the two week time frame.
Again, with the early look at competing Black Friday prices,
retailers had plenty of time to make adjustments to the price of
their Black Friday deals, and make
Price was cited
shoppers aware that they had
as being the top
matched or beaten a competitive
price. This may have been a
influencer as to
key influencer in each retailer’s
whether or not
choice to change their prices on
shoppers made a
such a high percentage of their
purchase online in
Black Friday deals, and stresses
the Shopper Insight
the importance for retailers to
maintain visibility into online
Series Survey,
pricing battleground throughout
highlighting the
importance of being the holiday season, as prices
can change daily, and without
aware of where your
warning. That said, we broke out
prices are compared
the price changes for the two week
period into a daily view to better
to competitors
understand when the changes were
occurring, and to what extent (see Figure 9). The vast majority
of online price changes occurred on Thanksgiving Day, though
changes also spiked on 11/24, especially at Kmart. On 11/24,
they changed online prices on just over 50% of their Black Friday
circular items. After Thanksgiving, when their competitors made
significant changes to the online price of their Black Friday deals,
Kmart made another price change on over 50% of their products.
2013
The volatility of Kmart’s pricing on these products in the two
weeks leading up to Black Friday could be perceived as quickresponse mechanism for combatting competitive price losses/
threats, particularly on the week of Black Friday. However, as
we see in Figure 10, Kmart actually increased their online prices
for 40% of their Black Friday basket items on 11/24. Though
Kmart increased the price of a larger number of their Black Friday
products, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart also increased
the online price for their Black Friday baskets on 11/24 as well.
Retailer websites will assuredly be a price battleground for
the balance of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday is a
unique event during the holiday season, in that many retailers
will fluctuate prices prior to the Black Friday event. Keeping
in mind that every retailer’s pricing strategy is different, there
is opportunity in understanding which of your competitors is
prone to proactive or reactive price changes—both increases
and decreases—in the online space. Knowing who is more
prone to inflate or deflate their prices leading up to the holiday
will help combat those strategies in 2014 through the use of
proactive promotional messaging making shoppers aware of
potential changes in advance.
Higher prices, but better value
Black Friday has always been promoted as a day on which
shoppers can find great deals at low prices. This year, the deals
were still largely the best shoppers will see all year, yet many
of the promoted price points retailers featured were higher
than in 2012, particularly in the Digital TVs category. Instead
of promoting the lowest priced Digital TV in the market, many
retailers offered steep discounts on higher-priced premium TVs.
Figure 11 shows the median promoted price, as well as the
median size for both the standard and premium TVs promoted in
Black Friday circulars (Note: a premium TV in this analysis can be
defined as any TV with “Smart” technology, or TVs that are Wi-Fi
enabled). Best Buy and h.h. gregg both promoted premium
TVs in their Black Friday circular, and for the premium TVs they
The Power of Market Intelligence
7
Within the Mass and Electronics channels, Samsung TVs
of all sizes were advertised across the majority of retailers,
dwarfing Vizio’s performance across the holiday. Not only
were Samsung TVs promoted by more advertisers within the
channel, but their promotions were of higher quality based
on their aggregate page position and prominence on the
page (Market Track Value Index, or MTVI*).
Figure 12: Black Friday 2013 brand leaders, Digital
TVs, Mass and Electronics retailers
promoted, the median promoted price was over $1,000, and a
median size was over 50 inches. These retailers were not hiding
the higher-priced TVs on the interior pages of their circular either.
Best Buy replaced the standard Toshiba 40” LCD TV they promoted
for $179.99 on the front page of their Black Friday 2012 circular
with a standard Sony 65” LED TV for $999.99, and an LG 55” LED TV
for $499.99—both higher-than-expected price points for a Black
Friday print front cover.
More retailers than ever before were stocking and promoting
Digital TVs for their Black Friday event, knowing that TVs are a
critical Black Friday traffic-driving category. Both Kohl’s and Office
Depot, historically known for featuring deals on Apparel and
Computers, respectively, promoted Digital TVs in their Black Friday
events in 2013. As shown in Figure 11, however, they stocked and
promoted their TVs in much the same way Best Buy did last year,
with standard, lower priced TVs. The fact that these two retailers
promoted Digital TVs at all was a surprise, and will be a trend to
look out for as retailers from all channels seek new, better ways to
drive traffic to their stores during the holidays.
* Market Track Value Index is Market Track’s proprietary measure of ad effectiveness, which includes factors such as placement, size, retailer, and
market. These charts show an aggregate total of all promotions for each brand by category. # of Advertisers is a measure of how many out of the
total possible advertisers (6) in the report advertised that brand.
It’s not just Monday anymore, get ready for Cyber Week
Black Friday isn’t the only part of the HSS that has turned into a week-long event—Cyber
Monday, the day formerly reserved for desk shopping, is starting early and is now a full week
for many retailers. With sales numbers more than tripling in the past decade to $1.465 billion in
2012, and the week of Cyber Monday last year ringing in three individual days of sales over $1
billion, it’s no wonder retailers are looking to entice shoppers to spend their online dollars with
them during the busiest online shopping week of the year.
Amazon began promoting their Cyber Monday “Cyber Week” event as the calendar turned to
November, and many other retailers have followed suit. Much the same as Black Friday, retailers
have leveraged their print, websites, email, and social media to promote
their Cyber Week sales even before the sales started.
Among others, Sam’s Club, Toys R Us, and Walmart
each sent Cyber Week promotion to their opt-in
email subscribers on Super Saturday, Amazon and
Best Buy took to Twitter to alert their followers to
their event details, and Macy’s and Target dedicated
part of their Sunday, 12/1 print circular cover to call
out their Cyber Monday events.
8
Market Track PerspectiveTM
The next five weeks are critical
During holiday 2012, retailers experienced a significant lull in both traffic and sales between
Black Weekend and Christmas. Dragging sales in the first weeks of December forced retailers
into steep, late-season discounts in an attempt to reach their sales goals for the quarter while
clearing their floors of holiday stock. To avoid the same post-Black Friday lull, retailers should:
1) Continuously engage shoppers with promotional incentives over the next five weeks
The lull experienced between Black Weekend and Christmas in 2012 has heightened the
importance of the mid-holiday period—from December 3rd to December 20th this year—
for retailers in every channel. To better understand how shoppers view the period between
Black Weekend and Christmas, we asked shoppers directly when they prefer to buy certain
categories in our Shopper Insight Series Survey. For several key holiday categories, the largest
number of shopper respondents claimed to prefer to buy their holiday products between
Black Friday Weekend and Christmas. Over 25% of shoppers claimed they prefer to buy
Apparel/Clothing/Footwear, Jewelry, and Toys/Games/Entertainment items in the midholiday period, so consider promotion of those categories in conjunction with shopper
buying preferences.
2) Understand that nine of the top ten online shopping days from 2012 are still to come
According to comScore, nine of the top 10 U.S. online retail spending days in 2012 occurred
between Cyber Monday and Christmas day. Online spending during these nine days outpaced
online spending on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Saturday and Sunday of Black Friday
weekend in 2012. There is a huge opportunity for retailers to engage holiday shoppers with
differentiated, cross-channel promotions during the lull period. Many retailers have already
extended their Cyber Monday event to a full week. Keep in mind the window for online
shopping narrows as you get closer to the holiday. Over 40% of respondents to our Shopper
Survey said that the latest they will make a purchase online is two weeks before Christmas, and
30% say 3 weeks before is the latest they will make a purchase. Retailers should be prepared to
provide additional promotional incentive to shoppers starting the week of December 9th (the
week after Cyber Week).
3) Give shoppers incentives for repeat holiday visits
Many retailers started promoting deals, offers, and overlays designed to keep
traffic numbers up during the traditional lull period. Target allocated a full
page of their Black Friday circular to promote a 20% off sale between
December 1st and 7th for shoppers who spend $75 or more in-store
at Target on Black Friday, giving shoppers a reason to return to the
store immediately following the Black Weekend event. Walmart
offered gift cards ranging from $10-100 with various Black Friday
purchases—from Apple and Samsung smartphones, to small
kitchen appliances—to be used on a separate/future purchase.
Other retailers like Kohl’s promoted store cash or points to draw
shoppers back into the store the week after Thanksgiving. The “Earn
Kohl’s Cash” promotion (which the retailer promoted in 2012 as
well) offered shoppers $15 in Kohl’s cash to be redeemed between
December 2nd and 9th, in-store or online, for every $50 spent in-store on Black Friday.
These are but a few steps retailers can take to proof against some of the struggles faced
during holiday 2012. As we discussed in the introduction, Black Friday is no longer a
single-day event, and nor is the holiday shopping season refined to only one or two weeks.
Shopper preferences and expectations, along with the sales results during the mid-holiday
period in 2012, suggest that the holiday period is a full two month event. Each week is as
important as the last, thus consistent, cross-channel engagement with shoppers is necessary
if retailers plan to meet their forecasts for the season.
About Market Track
Market Track is a market intelligence firm
dedicated to increasing our customers’
returns on their promotional investments
and providing real-time visibility into
e-commerce pricing. We support our 850+
retail, manufacturer and agency clients
through monitoring and analyzing over
200 U.S. and Canadian markets for every
channel of trade, 1 billion buy pages from
3,000 global merchants, and 1,700 media
channels—enabling dynamic decision
making by turning data into actionable
insights.
Key Takeaways
• During the week of Black Friday,
each retailer in our study (total of 16)
promoted either their Black Friday
event or specific Black Friday deals in
print, in an email promotion, on their
Facebook site, and in their Twitter feed.
More retailers were leveraging multichannel promotions than any prior year,
engaging shoppers across all paths to
purchase.
• The promoted prices in Black Friday
print circulars, especially on key pages,
increased from 2012, as retailers offered
deeper discounts/better deals on higher
ticket products, such as premium TVs.
• The online marketplace was extremely
dynamic in the two weeks leading up
to Black Friday, with some retailers
changing online prices on more than
90% of the items promoted in their
Black Friday print circular between
November 15th and 29th.
• During key events, every retailer needs
visibility into the competitive online
pricing space to understand where they
are priced relative to competition each
day, and when to change their prices
when it fits with their strategy.
Learn More
For more insight into the entire
promotional landscape or
an analysis of your digital
and print strategies, call
Market Track at 1.800.235.3781
or e-mail
[email protected].
© 2013 Market Track. All rights reserved.