Black Friday Deals

We’ve all heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right? Two of the most crucial dates in the retail calendar, where shoppers can get huge savings on a range of products. Well, this year us giffgaffers wanted to find out about people’s perceptions of this event, so we ran a little survey.

What is Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

30% of respondents didn’t know what Cyber Monday was vs. 6.53% who weren’t aware of Black Friday.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., where most major retailers open very early and offer promotional sales. Cyber Monday, on the other hand, is a marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving.

We all go a little crazy over a great deal. After all, we're only human. But are we as desperate for a bargain as videos and other online content suggest?

It's not all fun and games

Black Friday started in the States. Since 2006, there have been 98 injuries associated with the event.

But it seems that we’ve become a lot more chilled out and savvy with our shopping. 88% of our survey respondents said that even though a deal is showing a significant saving, they’ll still shop around to make sure that they are getting the best price.

Interestingly only 4% of respondents have relied on apps to help them with their price comparison. Hot UK Deals and Amazon are some of the top tools used to help find the best deals.

Changing the way we shop

As consumer habits evolve, so have store opening times. Many shops have now started opening their doors at midnight, as opposed to 6am. Would you crawl out of your warm, cosy bed on a dark November morning just to nab a great deal? Well, apparently 21% of us would. There are some night owls out there too, with 23% stating that they’d stay up later to get a great deal.

We are certainly becoming more tactical with our buying habits. 35% of respondents said that they will look for deals periodically throughout the day. It was interesting to see that only 4% have lied about being sick in order to snap up the best deals. We’re all surprisingly honest.

What makes Black Friday

The best thing about Black Friday is the great deals, with 74% of respondents agreeing. However, a lot of people have felt that the whole thing was overhyped and is simply a marketing technique ‘to get rid of old stock.’

The surge in browsing habits on these days means that retailers sometimes have issues dealing with the online traffic demand. In fact, 27% of respondents cited this as one of the worst things about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The chaos the events cause is the second ‘worst thing’ (19%).

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Only 3% from our survey have admitted to queuing for more than three hours, whereas 75% said that they don’t queue and just hoped for the best.

It seems that Black Friday is the start of something. It’s seen as the countdown clock to Christmas, with 43% of people saying that they’ve taken advantage of the deals to stock up on gifts.

40% of respondents have taken advantage of these deals to give themselves a lovely pre-Christmas treat, too.

The number one thing that everyone looks for in Black Friday deals is technology (37%), though usually, 37% of us don’t wait for Black Friday at all. Are we treating ourselves with new tech, or are we becoming more generous with our gifts? Last year, the Telegraph published an article** that explained the average family spends over £800 on Christmas. With 23% of us feeling the pressure to overspend, could Black Friday and Cyber Monday’s ‘great deals’ be adding fuel to the fire?

Making that impulse purchase

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year for retailers.

19% of our survey respondents said that all their Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases were planned, while 24% admit to making impulse purchases. 57% say it’s a little bit of both. However, Black Friday doesn’t have the best timing for us money-wise, as it falls a good few days before payday.

And it seems that not everyone is convinced about Black Friday. Many of our respondents' feelings were that it leads to greed and empty consumerism. Some have even expressed concerns that we are easily influenced by the perceptions of a good deal.

What’s the worst thing you’ve done on Black Friday?

Along with finding out about what you buy and what you think of the sales, we wanted to know how caught up in Black Friday you get. So we asked: What’s the worst thing you’ve done on Black Friday?

96% of our respondents said they’ve done nothing bad at all, but 4% did have some interesting stories to offer, such as hiding products in stores and coming back to pay for them later.

“I once hid items in store then came back to them two days later. Result.”

‘Trolley skimming’ if someone was breaking the one product per customer rule was also a popular confession.

“Someone asked where the TVs were in a queue.... I sent them to the wrong floor, don't hate me lol”

“I was pregnant last Black Friday when I saw this lady was going towards a TV I wanted - it was last one too, but being pregnant I couldn't walk fast so I told Jack to go grab it and I held my belly and faked a contraction lol. I got the TV but wished I'd tried something else as I had to talk the store out of calling an ambulance and let a nurse who was shopping, as well, check me over lol #sorrynotsorry”

“I went to a supermarket that was having a Black Friday deal on TVs. A 32" TV for £99. I arrived before the shop even opened, and when I got inside, I saw people grabbing at the TVs. They were gone before I could get to them! Despite there being a limit of one TV per customer, one guy had two. So without expressly telling him I worked for the shop, I offered to assist him by taking the TVs to the checkout while he gets the rest of his shopping. He thanked me and left me to take them. At this point, I took them both to the checkout and bought one for myself. I did ask them to hold on to the other for the guy, though. Although I don't think they did!”

So there you have it, the truth about this seasonal shopping extravaganza. Black Friday falls on November 23rd, with retailers already starting to announce what products you can expect from them.

Happy shopping… and keep a close eye on those trolleys

*Source Wikipedia

**The Telegraph