Flat Black Friday sales in Canada in 2014 are an indication that excitement about the November shopping phenomenon has likely plateaued, according to a study conducted by retail analysts at DIG360 Consulting Ltd. and Ipsos West.
Awareness of Black Friday nudged up to 98% from 97% in 2013 but that did not spur any extra sales.
The study found that 25% of Canadians bought merchandise on Black Friday – down from 27% in 2013. Shopping on Black Friday had been steadily on the rise since 2010, when a mere 16% of Canadians bought products.
“We see this as a plateau in Canadian Black Friday", said DIG360 owner David Ian Gray.
“I'm not anticipating any shift to broader and deeper discounting by retailers in future years, which in fact would be bad for business this early in the holiday season”.
Gray told Business in Vancouver that, while there was some concern in November that shoppers were not at the same pace of spending as last year, his DIG360/Ipsos Black Friday Tracker study suggests that a sizable minority was simply delaying their shopping.
“We are now calling for a flat 2014 holiday selling period over 2013, validated by some anecdotal sharing from our retail executive network,” he said.
The study complements reports that shoppers are not seeing the deals that they expected, given what Gray calls “pre-Black Friday hype.”
He pointed out that even with a minority buying, Black Friday in Canada is entrenched as one of the most significant shopping weekends in Canadian retail.
“One of the more interesting changes in our data was that more Canadians are shopping from online Canadian websites for Black Friday sales,” said Rodenburgh.
B.C. residents had the lowest Black Friday participation rate in Canada with 39% of residents shopping or browsing. Canadawide that rate was 51%, according to the study.•
