The Friday after Thanksgiving is a free day for several in the US, which has made it to a natural start for Christmas shopping. Some don’t think it will have that large hold in Sweden, or no hold at all, but I think that we have passed that stage. Last year, I was invited to a Black Friday event at the outlet centre Freeport in Kungsbacka outside Gothenburg, which was open 3 PM – 9 PM with offers in every store. What I could see, there were a lot of customers, and I assume that I will be invited to something similar this year, even though, funny enough, it was not connected to Black Friday in the end of November, but Halloween in the end of October. But I liked the concept, no matter if they get the date right this year or not.
Everyone Should Know
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are well-known concepts in USA, and everyone knows that it is possible to find good deals in the stores. Several web stores choose to have offers all the way from Friday to Monday, while others just select one or two days. In Sweden it is so far not many that would even think to look for campaigns on these days. During the week before pay checks have been handed out in Sweden, something that is always positive for consummation. If it can just be clear that several e-commerce sites offer special deals, and things that customers are looking to buy in December, consumers will remember these days to start Christmas shopping for real.
It can be good if the consumers can find campaigns some time before, so that they are ready to order during the period of time, and know what they can expect. But it is also an idea that you need to visit the web site to see the current offers. Jollyroom.se, who sells baby and children items, sometimes have special offers every hour during some periods, I count that they will have some form of campaign connected to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some of the other shops that marketed campaigns in Sweden during the last weekend in November last year was Webhallen.com, BR-Leksaker.se, and Nelly.com.
Continues to Grow each Year
The trend last year was that the great e-commerce day, Cyber Monday, increased again. Several customers choose to sit home in the sofa and do their shopping, instead of in a crowd with everyone else who will do their Christmas shopping at the same time. For the same reasons as e-commerce grows in general. Availability, and convenience is attractive. Both Klarna and PostNord showed an increase in commerce during these days in Sweden 2013. The question is how it will turn out this year, but having the steady growth of e-commerce in mind, the numbers should keep moving up.
Should you Start with a Sale?
There are those e-retailers that think that it is wrong to start the largest shopping month with a sale. But when there are that many store competing over the same customers, and more and more who orders from foreign countries, it might be better with smaller margins during a few days in order to increase sales. You can probably attract new customers who hadn’t discover the web store before. The traditional Christmas sale starts already before Christmas in many stores now, e-specially in e-stores to be able to deliver around Christmas. The same thing for the traditional Midsummer sale in Sweden, that often starts one or two weeks before nowadays. If you should be in the running to collect sale orders, you can’t be the one that starts as the last one. And you must not forget that is one or a few days, to get the customer to make the order right then, since the prices will go up afterwards.
It might also be a good idea to try to even out the load for logistics during December, so that the warehouse kan keep up with the orders without having a stressful week before Christmas, when everyone want to make sure they get their Christmas presents delivered before Christmas Eve.
Cyber Monday Starts the Online Christmas Calendar
In the same way as Halloween grows every year in Sweden, I pressume that more and more will catch on to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are a lot of shops that compete of the billions SEK that Christmas Sales ends up in every year in Sweden, take the opportunity to have a clear and reoccurring concept. A customer can remember a good e-commerce offer until next year when it is time for Christmas shopping if it is connected to an event. And remind them.
Next month I will write a little about different Christmas calendars that we could see online already the last years, with new offers every day during December. Cyber Monday starts the online Christmas calendar. Since Cyber Monday takes place on December 1 this year, they could both have an extra push forward. Sign up to 3bits’ Newsletter to receive the latest news from us and the e-commerce articles we publish.
