Is Black Friday Still Relevant?
For years, Black Friday has marked the beginning of the holiday season shopping frenzy where retailers and e-commerce platforms brace themselves for the spike in consumer demand. To keep up, many companies boost recruitment in the lead up to Black Friday, many employing seasonal staff to manage the influx.
However, recent years have shown a shift in consumer attitudes towards shopping, especially Black Friday deals. Gone are the days where news platforms broadcast consumers physically fighting over heavily discounted TVs, leaving many to wonder if Black Friday is still worth a company’s time to increase recruitment. In this post, we’ll dive into the current state of Black Friday and discuss whether increased seasonal recruitment is still beneficial for the modern market.
Decline in Consumer Interest?
In the past 5 years, Google Trends shows a gradual decline in people searching for Black Friday. While this may be concerning for companies who expect a huge influx in consumer demand during this time of the year, it doesn’t necessarily mean that consumers are no longer interested. It is likely consumers no longer feel the need to search for Black Friday related posts as most already know the date it will fall on and what they can expect from retailers during this time.
An article published by The Guardian suggests that sales have slumped in October which could be an indication that shoppers are putting off spending in anticipation of Black Friday deals and discounts.
What do the polls say?
Ahead of the sales weekend, multiple organisations release polls to the public to gain insight to the spending habits that will be seen that year. For example, this year statistic show that 46% of people are planning to participate in Black Friday sales this year, with 34% planning to spend more money this year than they did in 2023 while 18% are expecting to spend less.
As trends have shown in the past few years, an increase in consumers choosing to shop online rather than in-store is expected as well as more consumers choosing to use Buy Now, Pay Later schemes such as Klarna or ClearPay, which reflects an overall shifts in consumer’s approach to shopping.
Polls and statistics also show changes on individual consumer profiles and their attitudes towards the Black Friday sales season. For example, data is showing that collectively consumer spending throughout the discount season is continuing to rise but individually, consumers are spending less. This is a reflection of the current economic climate such as the cost of living crisis which is making more people turn to sales and discounts like Black Friday which was traditionally attractive to lower-income families who relied on the sales for holiday shopping. However, with inflation and economic issues, more families such as the middle class are also finding themselves reliant on the holiday deals.
So is seasonal recruitment worth it after all?
Considering statistics ahead of Black Friday 2024, we believe that extra seasonal recruitment is still needed, but employers must be aware of the changed in consumer habits to better plan ahead of the busy shopping season.
Consumers are increasingly choosing to buy products online rather than in-store and companies should keep this in mind and prioritiseshipping warehouses over retail staff. Additionally, consumers are spending less individually but more consumers are taking advantage of the sales, meaning companies can expect a higher quantity of orders that tend to be smaller than previous years, again meaning warehousing should be prioritised in seasonal staff increases as well as delivery drivers.
While in-store shopping throughout the holiday season is declining, retailers can still expect an influx of consumers shopping on the highstreet, meaning we won’t be seeing the end of Christmas Temp staff in stores any time soon.