Omnichannel retail emerged as the big winner of Black Friday 2024, multiple experts told The Food Institute.
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, overall sales rose 3.4% from last year, with in-store sales increasing by a modest 0.7% and online sales up 14.6%.
Roughly 197 million shoppers shopped deals from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday – the second highest number reported, slightly lower than last year’s 200.4 million. Black Friday remained the most popular day for in-store and online shopping, according to the National Retail Federation.
The meaning of Black Friday – originally the day retailers believed they were in the black for the year – has evolved and the sales have been starting earlier and earlier, with Amazon’s and other retailers’ Black Friday sales beginning during the summer.
About half of shoppers told various surveys they had completed their holiday shopping by November 1.
“People are much more wary about how genuine Black Friday deals are these days, after high profile tricks of the trade have been well covered in the media,” said Riani Kenyon, a behavioral analyst at Canvas8.
“Retailers have also started running Black Friday deals way ahead of the day itself. On top of this, physical shopping has given way (in part at least) to online and the convenience of home delivery,” Kenyon added.
Statistics from Plaicer.ai show substantial increases in foot traffic at Target, Apple Stores, and Marshalls compared to last year. Shopping malls also saw increases, with indoor malls recording an 8.2% increase in activity.
“Black Friday is not just about purchasing products. It’s about getting out, and there are many players that benefit, including movie theaters and coffee shops, which see some of their strongest visitation trends of the entire year on the day,” said Ethan Chernofsky, senior VP of marketing at Placer.ai. “So, while Black Friday has changed, it’s still absolutely critical for retailers even if the ways they need to take advantage have shifted.”
Justin Christopher, ecommerce manager at Klatch Coffee, which has 12 cafes in Southern California, told FI that being an omnichannel retailer insulates his company from the last-minute rush.
“Although the ‘line up at 3 a.m. for a deal’ Black Friday experience may be in decline, we’re still very optimistic about both online sales and local sales at our cafes for the remainder of the 2024 holiday shopping season,” said Christopher. “We expect those dollars to be spread across multiple days or weeks of holiday shopping, (as opposed to a focus on a single day) so we’ve introduced promotions that span a few weeks during the peak shopping period, and those promos are customized for the online or local audience to meet their specific needs.”
Some of the busiest shopping days of the year continue to be during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to the NRF.
The season started on the heels of strong Census Bureau figures showing sales grew at a healthy pace in September and October, lending to the optimism for the holiday shopping season.
“October sales were a good early step forward into the holiday shopping season. Falling energy prices have likely provided extra dollars for household spending on retail merchandise,” said NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz.
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