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In recent years, the line between Thanksgiving and Black Friday has started to blur. With many stores opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving afternoon and evening and rolling out their online sales earlier in week, Thanksgiving and Black Friday have started to run together.
But not this year.
To start, a growing number of major retailers will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, including Target, Costco, Kohl’s and Walmart. And with consumers gathering in smaller groups to celebrate the holiday, the shopping around it will be different than normal. Companies need to understand the changes to adjust their experiences to reach out to Black Friday customers in 2020.
Virtual Thanksgiving Leads To Virtual Shopping
This year, instead of gathering in large groups of family and friends, people will spend Thanksgiving with their immediate families or in much smaller groups. Many people are getting creative by connecting with family members through technology like FaceTime and Zoom. Those digital connections do more than just impact the meal itself—they also impact Black Friday.
With no Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, fewer football games to watch and a smaller meal to cook, people are left with more time to shop online. They won’t have to wait for stores to physically open and can take advantage of sales easily on their mobile devices. Stores need to be prepared for more e-commerce shopping on Thanksgiving Day as celebrations blend into online shopping trips.
One major difference between Black Friday e-commerce and online shopping other days is that people will likely be together. Although they won’t be in store, there will still be a social aspect as people shop while gathered in small groups. People will be more likely to share deals and inspiration for gifts. Social connectivity will play a large role in Black Friday, and brands should tap into the potential for customers to share deals and add real-life connections to their virtual shopping experiences.
Black Friday Lasts All Month Long
Most Black Friday sales are moving online this year to comply with COVID-19 restrictions, and many of them have already started. Black Friday will blur into Cyber Monday so that sales will basically run all November long. Stores are rolling out deals leading up to Black Friday and will likely have the best deals on actual Black Friday.
Virtual Thanksgiving gatherings also remove the likelihood of customers pouring over Black Friday catalogs and newspaper inserts together, so stores will need to rely on online communication through social media and email to share their biggest deals. And because the sales period will be longer than usual this year, regular communication is key to alerting customers when deals they are interested in go live. Stores that rely on old methods of advertising and don’t communicate with their customers in real time will lag behind.
Online sales mean that nearly every store is available to every customer. Customers won’t make decisions based on what stores are near them, but rather what stores have the best deals and can get the items to them on time.
Thanksgiving will look different this year, and so will Black Friday. Virtual Thanksgiving celebrations will flow into virtual Black Friday shopping, and brands that can adapt will likely see the most growth.
Blake Morgan is the bestselling author of The Customer of the Future. Sign up for her new course here.
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November 20, 2020 at 05:57AM
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How A Zoom Thanksgiving Celebration Will Impact Black Friday - Forbes
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