Between the holidays quickly approaching and big sale days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest shopping season of the year is here. According to a survey from shopping retail website, RetailMeNot.ca, Global News reported that shoppers plan on spending an average of $1,400 per person – $653 of which will only be for gifts (that’s $100 more than last year) with other costs going to $384 worth of holiday entertaining; $256 on food and alcohol and $87 on décor.
This should not be a surprise as retailers already have all their holiday merchandise up and ready to go before Halloween even ends. But what has changed is how and when consumers are doing their holiday shopping. In the past, consumers were used to waiting for those big Boxing Day sales, but here in Canada, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals have taken over. When it comes to saving money, consumers don’t have to be loyal to a day, they just want the best deal (on items they are and are not always looking for). Not to mention that the time between the Black Friday sales and the holidays is only a few weeks to get all your shopping done that people are starting with these big sales and taking advantage of all the other holiday deals that quickly follow.
Online shopping is changing the ways in which we shop, and especially for those who do not want to head into physical stores during the holidays. There are definite pros and cons to both shopping in-store and online, but people are adapting to the ways of online shopping as Cyber Monday sales are expected to be record-breaking according to a CBC report.
Toronto Star also reported via Salesforce data that over a period of 30 days, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 17, SalesForce tracked Canadian and American social media conversations about Black Friday on blogs, forums, Twitter and Instagram and captured 28,000 mentions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday on social media in Canada, and Amazon was mentioned in 4,000 of those conversations. Many shoppers seemed to be talking about specific items and purchases on social media in anticipation of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
Will you be shopping this Black Friday or Cyber Monday or are you waiting until Boxing Day? If so, are you shopping for any particular items? Let us know in the comment section below.
