Are you curious about what Black Friday is and why is Black Friday so popular? Well, in this article I am going to give you detailed info about Black Friday so hopefully, your curiosity can find its answers here.

The day after Thanksgiving has been marked as Black Friday by the people of the United States of America. Its significance is rooted in the conventional ceremony of huge shopping sprees resulting in huge amounts of profit for the merchants.

Though the origin of Black Friday is totally different from what the concept of the same is now today, Black Friday is still relevant however the modes of shopping (online or in-store) have changed quite a bit.

In Which U.S. City Did The Term Black Friday Originate?

The actual term “Black Friday” was first coined in Philadelphia. When talking about why it is called Black Friday, we need to go back to the early 1960s from where we can get a more accurate explanation. In the early 1960s, quite a large number of suburban tourists came to Philadelphia and shopped for their holiday while for some years they also attended the Army-Navy annual football game on Saturdays.

These events created absolute chaos in the city of Philadelphia which is why the local police officers coined the term “Black Friday” to depict the disarray of the situation. The police officers had to deal with accidents, traffic jams, from minor to major crimes among other issues. So, the shift was also longer than usual which created a headache for the police department altogether.

The term “Black Friday” became a well-known conventional phrase used in Philadelphia. City merchants attempted to make the word more light-hearted by calling it “Big Friday”.

Why Is It Called Black Friday?

In the United States, Black Friday is considered the busiest shopping time of the year. You will also get a special offer of limited money-saving options, which is mainly a marketing technique of the National Chain Stores to lure more customers in. You can get similar deals online.

Many people believe that the term “Black Friday” has been derived from a general concept of business which expresses a financial loss also referred to as “in the red” because the owners profit a lot after the day of the Thanksgiving and not before that. So the day after Thanksgiving becomes a huge shopping spree for people and business owners, it is termed “in the black”. However, This concept is false.

It was in the late 1980s when the term “Black Friday” started to become popular as a positive boost in sales and it happened after the merchants began to widen the red to the black concept of the profit aspect. Then, later the idea of stores getting a huge profit on “Black Friday” started trending as the biggest day of shopping in the US. in reality, the largest sales for the stores happens on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Black Friday is not alone anymore as many other concepts similar to this have arisen, some of them being Small Business Saturday where people are encouraged to go to their nearest or local retailers. Cyber Monday is another concept like Black Friday where online shopping gets promoted.

If we look at it from a historical perspective then there is another connotation to Black Friday which is not at all related to shopping. To increase the prices, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, Wall Street financiers tried to corner the gold market of the nation which was situated at the New York Gold Exchange by purchasing as much precious metal as it was allowed.

On September 24, the plan of Jay Gould and Jim Fisk failed because of the intervention approved by President Ulysses S. Grant. This caused the stock market to have instantly plummeted which made many Americans bankrupt.

Why Did Black Friday Become So Popular?

Since discounts on prices drew so many people and the profit was way higher, retailers used it to their advantage, making Black Friday a day where almost everyone is out shopping. It was even better than the last-minute sales for Christmas.

You can notice some retailers putting their items for sale even on the morning of Thanksgiving, and some sending emails about special items to their previous customers way before the actual event.

The retailers mostly put their discounts on the popular toy collections and electronics because they are in huge demand on this day of the year. However, the biggest sales are on home decor, furniture and apparel.

On Black Friday you will see the popular shops already having people lined in front of them even before the gates are opened which are usually opened in the afternoon of the Thanksgiving. This is why Black Friday is a long “day” for both the seller and the customer.

After the pandemic, most shops do not open on Thanksgiving. They start their business early on Friday and this has become a trend now.

If you also want to participate in Black Friday but don’t want to stand outside the store and wait in that long line then you can shop online as they generally start around the same time (some even earlier than the offline stores) on this day, you can find prices so low that it might be a loss for the owner both in-store and online shops, this is all to entice the customers.

The big-league shops post their offers and discounts as well as special items, coupons, and ad scans online way before the event and this gives the shoppers an idea of what they can get each year and thus plan to purchase their desired items accordingly.

Some retailers stay still for the time being and wait for the last possible moment and then their ads for Black Friday are released to the public. This makes the shoppers eager and curious about the deals and offers and they keep on checking for new announcements so this creates a buzz around people.

2020 Changes Everything

The concept of online shopping has been popularized in 2020 as it had many advantages to it. Soon, the online mode of shopping became the dominant way and then came coronavirus which changed the future of in-store shopping in that year and the year that came after it i.e. 2021. On Thanksgiving people mostly had to do online shopping because, for the first time in a decade, most of the store and retail shops remained closed. However, there were some (only a handful) stores that put on sales though it didn’t make a change.

Some store provided their customers with both online and in-store modes of shopping privileges and big-league centres like Target or Walmart stayed open even during November and without a doubt maintained the tradition of Black Friday. This helped in eradicating the “waiting in line” process for the customers.

2021 New Twists and Turns

In 2021, the pandemic did not seize and only expanded with new variants. So, it was the same circumstance for the retail shops as it was in 2020 as they were all unsure of how the day of Thanksgiving will plan out to be.

However, this year, some unique outcomes could be traced to the 2021 Cyber Week which was ultimately the result of supply chain issues that influenced inflation. The total worth of carts became higher than it was in 2020 (13.9% higher). This was because of the larger purchases and the lesser discounts.

The discounts were much weaker and there were a lot of out-of-stock messages (more than 258%) compared to November of 2019. The discounts were not as low (-27%) every year as what it was in 2021 (-27%).

Black Friday Statistics

From the year 1869 till now, Black Friday has gone through numerous changes. The primary motive of this day is for company owners to make a huge profit. Do you know much customers spend on one Black Friday?

Here is a detailed discussed account of the numbers for you to comprehend the immensity of the sales.

Black Friday Shopping and Spending

In 2021, the challenges of the supply chain made the customers fill their carts quite early than the usual time of the event. Many customers were in search of deals since October and most of them got their desired items within December. From 1st November to 29th November In the year 2021, the shoppers spent $109.8 billion in online shopping. This ratio is way up than what happened in 2020 (11.9%).
Cyber Monday was less popular as people spent less money in the year 2021 this day than they did in 2020. However, Cyber Monday still remains the biggest shopping because in 2021 people spent %10.7 billion which was still less than 2020’s Cyber Monday when shoppers spent $10.8 billion.
Thanksgiving along with Black Friday collected $14.04 billion in 2021 from online sales. If you divide it then $8.9 billion people spent on Black Friday while the rest of it i.e. $5.14 billion they spent on their Thanksgiving. The decrease is only .63% from the previous year, 2020.
Thanksgiving along with Black Friday collected $14.13 billion in 2020 from online sales. If you divide it then $9.3 billion people spent on Black Friday while the rest of it i.e. $5.1 billion they spent on their Thanksgiving. This is a 19% increase from the last year, 2019.
Thanksgiving along with Black Friday collected $11.09 billion in 2019 from online sales. If you divide it then $7.5 billion people spent on Black Friday while the rest of it i.e. $4.4 billion they spent on their Thanksgiving. Thus, the sales in 2019 increased from the year 2018 by 20.2%.
Thanksgiving along with Black Friday collected $14.04 billion in 2018 from online sales. If you divide it then $9.09 billion people spent on Black Friday while the rest of it i.e. $3.07 billion they spent on their Thanksgiving. Thus, the sales in 2018 increased from the year 2017 by 19.7%.

Black Friday Online vs In-Stores

18% of the Cyber Monday orders that are made online used Buy Online Pick up in Store. Among these were also the retailers that offer similar services. In 2020 the percentage was much higher, 20%.
100 million shoppers purchased their products online in 2020making the sales up by 8% more than that in 2019 (increased 8% from 2019). While online shopping for Black Friday increased, in-store shopping decreased by a lot. Only 58.7 million were accounted to be on Black Friday. It became lower than it was in 2019(decreased by 37%).
Since major retailers were closed on Thanksgiving Day, the in-shopping percentage dropped by a huge percentage. Foot traffic got decreased by 55% YoY if we compare 2020 and 2019.
During Thanksgiving weekend in 2019, the rate for “Buy Online Pick Up In-Store” increased by 43% (year over year)
During Thanksgiving weekend in 2018, the rate for “Buy Online Pick Up In-Store” increased by 50% (year over year).

Conclusion

Did you know that the top-selling items on Black Friday as well as Cyber Monday in 2021 were Amazon Echo Show, Barbie doll, Train set, Hot Wheels, X-box but most specifically Series S (for obvious reasons), VTech toys, AirPods and Nintendo Switch?

Well, now if you are to look for what to buy on Black Friday, now you know. Most people were gifted gift cards on Cyber Monday because the sales for this increased by 7x times than the usual. Along with this, kitchen supplies and video games for children occupied the rest of the sales.

Hope this article cleared your doubts and questions about Black Friday and how it became so popular or why is it so pompously regarded as the biggest shopping day of the year. Let us know your thoughts about this day and what you plan to buy for the upcoming Black Friday.

Black Friday History