black friday all around the world (3/8)

Read first: the truth about black friday – part 2

Black Friday has become so popular that this shopping tradition has seeped into cultures and countries all around the world that don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving.

Countries like UK, Canada, Australia and other places that have British ties celebrate Boxing Day which is a national holiday. Millions of shoppers flock to stores in hopes of finding bargains. And the scenes very much resemble those of Black Friday in the US. Hordes of shoppers transform into “mobs” in their hunt for Boxing Day deals. And over the years, along with brick-and-mortar stores, more and more people are opting for online retailers as well. On top of that, stores in the UK have started offering Black Friday deals following Thanksgiving, despite it being a holiday unique to the US. It started back in 2010, when Amazon introduced the concept of Black Friday to Britain and it has since become the biggest shopping day in the UK. Stores like English chains House of Fraser and Topshop as well as Amazon online, now offer Black Friday deals for things like clothing and electronics. And bargain hunters, like in the US, have been known to get quite “competitive” in stores as well.

In Norway, Black Friday started as a publicity stunt campaign back in 2010 to increase the sales to the shopping mall Norwegian Outlet. Since the introduction, it has been promoted every year in a larger and growing market all over the country.

Black Friday was introduced in Spain in 2015 and has become immensely popular now. Spanish retailers, like clothing stores Zara and Mango, saw a 35% increase in sales during Black Friday weekend in 2017 from the previous year as people have embraced this occasion.

Black Friday has also garnered great attention from Brazilians. While In Mexico, the government and retailing industry have created an annual weekend of discounts and deals, El Buen Fin, meaning “the good weekend” in Spanish, inspired by Black Friday, which also takes place during the Thanksgiving weekend. On this four-day weekend, major retailers extend their store hours^] and offer special promotions, including extended credit terms and price promotions.

Black Friday is little known in India, as its shopping seasons are different. However, the big e-commerce retailers in India are trying to emulate the concept of shopping festivals from the US like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been offering discounted products on the major festivals in India. You have Black Friday like deals offered on Amazon and other online retailers as part of Diwali festive season which happens around the same time in October or November. Last year, the e-commerce industry, led by Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart, was projected to rake in $3 billion in sales during the five-day Diwali Festival alone.

This year on Amazon, although the Great Online Shopping Festival was held on October 21 through 25, you could find difficult to resist offers and deals in multiple waves throughout the month. Interestingly, Google Trends data for 19-25 November 2018 in India showed that one-third of all queries related to Black Friday sales were recorded on Friday (35.7 percent). The research conducted in India in 2018 reported that 56 percent of surveyed Indians are aware of the existence of Black Friday.