The holiday season officially kicks off in November with Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Black Friday is on November 23, the day after Thanksgiving its traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. The holiday season marks the most important time of the year for businesses as 30-40 percent of annual sales occur during this season. Every year, there is a significant rise in shoppers thanks to increase in channels where they can buy products apart from physically visiting stores.
Black Friday Sales Statistics
In 2017, the number of people visiting stores on Black Friday and Thanksgiving declined 4 percent from 2016. Online sales rose 18 percent, according to Adobe Systems Inc. Sales hit a record of $7.9 billion. Forty percent of these purchases were done from mobile phones.
Every year, a shopper spends an average of over $1000 with over 50 percent on gifts and the rest on food, decorations, and great deals. They following are the past 15 years of retail sales data. The average annual increase is 2.5 percent, thanks to the steep 4.6 percent decline in 2008. Before the 2008 financial crisis, the 10-year average annual increase was 3.5 percent.
| Year |  Spent per Shopper |  Total Spent  |  Percent Increase |
| 2002 | Â Â N.A. | Â $416.4 billion | Â Â 2.1% |
| 2003 | Â Â N.A. | Â $437.6 billion | Â Â 5.1% |
| 2004 | Â Â N.A. | Â $467.2 billion | Â Â 6.8% |
| 2005 | Â Â $734.69 | Â $496.2 billion | Â Â 6.2% |
| 2006 | Â Â $750.70 | Â $512.6 billion | Â Â 3.2% |
| 2007 | Â Â $755.13 | Â $525.9 billion | Â Â 2.7% |
| 2008 | Â Â $694.19 | Â $501.7 billion | Â -4.6% |
| 2009 | Â Â $681.83 | Â $503.2 billion | Â Â 0.2% |
| 2010 | Â Â $718.98 | Â $529.4 billion | Â Â 5.2% |
| 2011 | Â Â $740.57 | Â $553.8 billion | Â Â 4.6% |
| 2012 | Â Â $752.24 | Â $568.7 billion | Â Â 2.6% |
| 2013 | Â Â $767.24 | Â $584.1 billion | Â Â 2.9% |
| 2014 | Â Â $802.45 | Â $608.0 billion | Â Â 5.0% |
| 2015 | Â Â $805.65 | Â $626.1 billion | Â Â 3.2% |
| 2016Â | Â Â $935.58 | Â $655.8 billion | Â Â 3.6% |
| 2017 | Â Â $967.13 | Â $682.0 billion | Â Â 4.0% |
| 2018 | Â $1,007.24 | Â $717.5 billion | Â Â 4.3% |
Seasonal Employees
According to research, stores hired between 500,000 and 550,000 seasonal workers in 2017. That’s a bit less than the record of 764,750 workers hired in 2013 but not as bad as the 263,820 workers hired in 2008 during the economic crisis. Many businesses hired seasonal employees to support the existing staff and this is very common for businesses around the holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation and increase between 4.3 and 4.8 percent in retail sales is expected which would take the sales in November and December to $720.89 billion.
Black Friday Sales and Deals
One of the most interesting facts about Black Friday is that most deals are not on the day itself. Marketing has advanced far ahead with retailers offering deals earlier and earlier leading to the main event sometimes even upstaging it. This is generally due to the competition in the retail market with every company fighting for every dollar they make. Most companies start off with electronic deals at the beginning of November. Christmas decorations get the maximum sales and discount on Thanksgiving and on Black Friday. They best day to buy toys is before Thanksgiving and look out for discount starting from 20 percent and rising to almost 40 percent on average on the top 3 days.
Digital Marketing and Sales
We all know that technology is well on the rise. For shoppers today, online shopping has become a heavenly trend which is slowly rising every day. To top off, online sales are the best on Thanksgiving Day with a relatively higher discount averaging at 24 percent. According to past experiences, it is the best day to shop for sporting goods, video games and computers. Black Friday is the best day for online deals on appliances, TVs, jewelry and electronics.
Trend Shift
Stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart are trying to get Black Friday shoppers into their stores. Although shoppers will never completely abandon brick-and-mortar stores, they expect retailers to offer a convenient online alternative. To compete with Amazon, Best Buy offered some of the most popular items in their stores exclusively. Wal-Mart stocked DVDs, pajamas, and other items customers prefer to pick up in stores. Still, more than 75 percent of the most popular toys were bought on walmart.com.
Most stores must rally all their skills to convince shoppers to get dressed, get in their cars, and drive to pick up merchandise. As a result, retailers are less likely to build new stores. That hurts commercial real estate, neighborhood shopping centers, and jobs.
Reference: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-black-friday-3305710
