Five trends to take away from this year’s Black Friday sales

For many, it’s the biggest shopping event of the year, and it’s becoming a global phenomenon.

The annual Black Friday sales, which occur the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, are now spreading across the ocean thanks to the internet. Plenty of Australians now eagerly await annual retail discounts of upwards of 50%, staying up late into the night to shop for clothes, electronics and accessories they can’t get here.

And with so many ways to ship products cheaply from the United States to Australia, more shoppers are getting in on the action.

Thanksgiving may be a traditional American holiday, but Black Friday is now a shopper’s vacation, and local retailers need to pay attention to what’s happening. Here are five key trends you should pick up from this year’s sale:

Apps

Plenty of Australian companies use shopping apps, but certainly Black Friday shows how powerful these programs can be.

There are apps available for users to find the best deals, others that allow users to instantly calculate discounts if a final price isn’t given, and others that even show you pricing trends for particular products and let you know whether you’re getting ripped off.

Another key trend this year is the emergence of barcode scanning. This has been around since the App Store launched, but it’s becoming much more popular. There are apps available to scan barcodes to compare items, but some are going further – Apple allows US customers to scan barcodes, buy products and then leave all using an iOS device.

Price comparison is here in a big way, and as these apps show, it’s becoming bigger than ever.

Pre-sales

Black Friday doesn’t start – obviously – until midnight the previous day, and many shops don’t open until 5am. But more and more stores and online shops are beginning to offer deals. Already, plenty of stores such as Amazon, Best Buy and other department stores are offering deals and it isn’t even Friday on the west coast yet.

This may be due to the economy, which still remains sluggish, with low retail turnover.

The sales will last longer, too. Cyber Monday starts next week and that will bring another round of sales for eager shoppers – and will no doubt bring in more Australian buyers. But already some of the biggest deals are available online.

Coupons

Coupons have exploded over the past few years, especially online, and this year will be the biggest yet. Group buying sites are set to feature some significant deals, repeating some of their most popular offers, and research indicates that more users will be searching for coupons.

A quick search to various online stores finds nearly every single one has a place where users can input coupon codes, and there are even dedicated websites to finding the best coupon codes for Black Friday deals.

Coupons are huge business, and this year will see it grow even bigger.

Ads

Just as the Superbowl is perhaps one of the most anticipated marketing events of the year, Black Friday is coming into its own as a key event for commercials.

One of the more interesting trends is that businesses are paying attention to more internet-based, viral phenomena. Rebecca Black, the teenager who became the focus of online attention after taking part in a horrible, manufactured music video, was featured in a Kohl’s commercial.

Social networking

Deals can become viral hits within minutes. When Groupon had its Gap deal last year, the business sent thousands of emails and earned millions of dollars after the coupon spread across the internet like wildfire, and businesses want the same thing to happen now.

Twitter feeds are going crazy, advertising deals, while all the products have links for users to share things on various social networks. Businesses are also using Facebook feeds to show off more deals and promote conversation.

With Twitter and Facebook now in full force, Black Friday and Cyber Monday is now solidified as a social event.