Black Friday and Cyber Monday are probably the two most profitable days for retailers in the entire year. But the dynamics of retail are changing. With several deals being announced before and continuing even after the shopping sale events, the D-days may have lost their sheen.
Stocks of most retailers have been up this weekend. That's no surprise given the Black Friday and pre-Black Friday deals announced this year. With the discounts kicking off even before Americans could finish their turkeys on Thanksgiving, stores saw crowds on Friday but the intensity was a lot lesser this year.
The rush and sales weren't restricted to the brick-and-mortar store. Online shops have also made good money this Black Friday with sales improving 8 percent on a year-over-year basis. About 47 percent of the sales came from mobile devices this year, according to TechCrunch.
If people are already lapping up deals online, before and on Black Friday and with some retailers announcing Cyber Monday deals that spill into the next eight days, would Cyber Monday really make a difference when it comes to sales?
"Retailers have plenty of Black Friday deals that are available for shopping online, meaning that any new sales specifically designated for Monday blend into the hoards of longer-running sales that began on Black Friday or earlier," Hilary Milnes writes for BostInno.com.
The money factor also weighs in here. Analysts found that the pre-Black Friday discounts were steeper than the original Black Friday deals and the rush on those pre-deals eliminated the demand for "door busting" offers on Black Friday this year.
"There's no question we're in Black November going forward. You're watching a new tradition being born right before your eyes – the front-loading of the holiday," Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at the NPD Group told The Sacramento Bee.
It all boils down to competition, experts explain.
"It's fierce out there. You have to compete for traffic and conversion, on pricing and availability. There's multiple layers of competition. And you're dealing with one of the most informed consumers that we've had in years, if not ever," Calvin Silva, a senior analyst of NASDAQ told Venture Beat adding that "there's never going to be just online shopping. The stat that gets thrown around is that roughly two thirds of consumer traffic is still done offline."
