Retailers are preparing for what they hope will be yet another record-setting global shopping spree on Black Friday, the fourth Friday of November, which this year is Nov. 24. Known for crowds lining up at big-box stores to pounce on doorbuster discounts during the early hours after American Thanksgiving, Black Friday normally marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers in the US, Europe and elsewhere will be trying to cash in on the hoopla.
Starting around the 1960s and early 1970s, police and bus drivers in Philadelphia used the term “Black Friday” to refer to the chaos an influx of people to the city created before the Thanksgiving weekend. Visitors would trawl the stores in Philadelphia on Friday with their Christmas lists looking for gifts. Shoplifting and parking violations ensued. Department stores re-branded the term to “Big Friday” to put a more positive spin on it. But the name did not stick, and since the 1980s retailers began to describe Black Friday as the day when their retail ledgers are allegedly “in the black,” or operating at a profit, as customers start holiday shopping, according to Marcus Collins, a marketing professor with Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
“What we know is Black Friday, because it’s so ceremonial, we get more people participating in it,” Collins said.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
Retailers including Best Buy, Macy’s, H&M and pure e-commerce retailers like Shein and Temu are already touting early Black Friday “deals” of up to 30% off on some limited merchandise online and in stores. Such early promotions could help them measure shopper demand and avoid product shortages, which could be a big problem this year. Water levels in a key shipping artery, the Panama Canal, have dropped due to a severe drought, cutting the number of ships carrying merchandise through it. Many retailers in the US intentionally muted their holiday hiring plans. Labor shortages are also a challenge for retailers in Europe, meaning shoppers could find fewer staff to help them.
Around 130.7 million people are planning to shop on Black Friday this year, according to data from the National Retail Federation (NRF). Thanksgiving weekend, which encompasses Black Friday and Cyber Monday — the Monday after Thanksgiving — is typically the busiest shopping period in the United States.
But Dana Telsey, CEO of Telsey Advisory Group, said Black Friday itself will not be as important this year. With Christmas falling on a Monday, the “procrastination factor [is] even greater because shoppers can wait until Saturday or Sunday” before Christmas to get gifts, she said last week.
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
Although most US stores will be closed on Thanksgiving again this year, opening for shoppers at 5am or 6am on Friday, some retailers are advertising discounts online that kick in starting at 12:01am on Thanksgiving.
Retailers big and small are touting online ordering and curbside pick-up this year for the convenience of shoppers who want to avoid stores. In the past decade, Americans’ Black Friday purchases online have more than tripled, reaching US$9.12 billion on the day last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics.(Reuters)
零售商正摩拳擦掌，準備迎接「黑色星期五」（11月第四個星期五，即今年的11月24日）全球購物潮，希望能讓業績再創新高。黑色星期五以大型購物店的超低折扣聞名，消費者大排長龍，就是為了要在美國感恩節次日一大早擠進門搶購。黑色星期五通常非正式地標誌聖誕購物季的開始。美國、歐洲與其他地方的零售商都想在這股熱潮中獲利。
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
約從1960年代及1970年代初開始，費城的警察與公車司機用「Black Friday」（黑色星期五）一詞來指感恩節週末前人群湧入該市所造成的混亂。週五，要買聖誕禮物的遊客會拿著購物清單在費城的店裡掃貨，順手牽羊及違規停車等狀況因而出現。百貨公司將「Black Friday」一詞重新包裝為「Big Friday」來賦予更積極的含義，但這名詞並未沿用下去。根據密西根大學羅斯商學院行銷學教授馬可斯‧柯林斯的說法，自1980年代起，零售商開始以「黑色星期五」來描述其帳簿轉為「黑字」（即有盈餘，非赤字）的日子，因為顧客開始為過節採購。
「黑色星期五非常具有儀式感，因此會有更多人想參與」，柯林斯說。
百思買（Best Buy）、梅西百貨（Macy’s）、H&M等零售商 ，以及希音（Shein）與Temu等純電子商務零售商已早早推出黑色星期五「優惠」，網上及實體店面的一些限量商品可享最高七折的折扣。這類提早的促銷活動可幫助商家衡量購物者的需求，並避免缺貨——缺貨可能會是今年的大問題。由於嚴重乾旱，主要航運動脈巴拿馬運河的水位下降，導致通過該運河的商船數量減少。美國許多零售商刻意放緩假期徵人計畫。勞動力短缺也是歐洲零售商面臨的挑戰，這表示協助消費者的員工會比較少。
根據全美零售聯合會（NRF）的數據，今年約有一億三千零七十萬人計劃在黑色星期五採購。感恩節週末——包括黑色星期五及網購星期一（感恩節後的星期一）——通常是美國最繁忙的購物時期。
但特爾西顧問集團執行長黛娜‧特爾西表示，今年黑色星期五本身不會那麼重要。她上週說，由於今年聖誕節恰逢星期一，「拖延因素就更大，因為消費者可以等到聖誕節前的週六或週日」才去買禮物。
雖然今年美國大多數店家仍將在感恩節休業，並在週五凌晨5點或6點開業，但一些零售商祭出網購折扣，在感恩節凌晨12:01開跑。
今年，大大小小的零售商都在大力宣傳線上訂購與當地店家取貨，以方便那些不想去店裡採購的消費者。資料分析平台Adobe Analytics的數據顯示，在過去十年，美國人的黑色星期五線上購物額增加了兩倍多，去年感恩節當天達到91.2億美元。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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