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Mailboxes filled with “Black Friday” offers, long ad sections on the radio and a flow of Black Friday commercials on the television: there was no escaping it this year. “Black Friday is Golden Friday” for the Belgian retailer”, store federation Comeos said.
Records shattered
Payment processor Worldline registered 5.6 million electronic payments by 17h30, up 10 % compared to last week’s entire Friday and 19 % more than last year’s entire Black Friday. Bol.com’s spokesperson, Marjolein Verkerk, told Het Laatste Nieuws that it was “the best sales day in our history”: We were amazed by the amount of people that were on our website shortly after midnight. We processed several 100,000 orders, hundreds per minute.”
Comeos estimates Black Friday 2017 broke every record. “Our preliminary results have exceeded all of our expectations”, CEO Dominique Michel said. “It shows that the formula is broader than the traditional discounts, often focused on the fashion industry. This is a unique marketing stunt, but across every industry, to the benefit of the consumer.
Not only web shops and chains
The NSZ (Neutral Syndicate of Entrepreneurs) called 208 participating retailers and they indicated that their turnover increased as well: on average, they outperformed a regular Friday by 14 %. Independent web shops and retail stores with both a physical and online shop experienced 23 and 18 % turnover increases respectively. “It is still amazing to see how Black Friday has evolved from a niche phenomenon into a hallmark event in just a couple of years”, NSZ chairman, Christine Mattheeuws, said.
The discount party has not ended yet: today, tomorrow and on Monday (“Cyber Monday”) are still filled with discounts.
Criticism as well
The entire phenomenon has drawn an increasing amount of criticism: “ It is hard not to participate, but the discount festivities will only cut into the store owners’ margins”, Dutch business paper FD writes. “It is not clear whether Black Friday generates additional turnover or only shifts turnover. There are no reliable numbers, but experts believe Black Friday only generates a limited amount of additional turnover. It is mostly a moment to connect with consumers.”
NSZ’ Christine Mattheeuws seems to agree: “The major chains are fully engaged with Black Friday, which pressures the smaller ones to join as well”, she told Het Nieuwsblad. “We have to make sure we do not exaggerate with the discount periods. If they follow each other too rapidly, then the consumer will just wait for them and retailers will barely be able to sell at 100 % of the price.” We could end up with the situation in France, where several retailers actively boycott Black Friday. Some even shut down their web shop for the day.
