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Black Friday and Cyber Monday. How are they different?

October 14, 2016 06:00 by author

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It has been regarded as the biggest Christmas shopping season in the US since the early 2000’s, as many major retailers offer promotional sales. Retailers in the UK have celebrated the tradition ever since 2010 when Amazon introduced it here. Black Friday has been picking up pace and sales surpassed £1bn in just the one day in 2015 (Mirror)

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday was created to persuade people to shop online. It is more tailored for small e-tailers who cannot compete with big retailers. Therefore, it can be seen as the online alternative to Black Friday. However, due to the increased popularity of Black Friday, more and more deals are being advertised online for this too. So Cyber Monday could be seen as the extension of Black Friday for many brands who chose to continue their deals until the Monday.

Why the names?

It is thought that the term Black Friday was coined in the 1960s. ‘Black’ refers to stores moving from the ‘red’ to the ‘black’ , back when red ink indicated a loss and black indicated a profit when accounting. (Black Friday)

The name Cyber Monday was first introduced in 2005 when the senior vice president of the National Retail Federation issued a press release which stated that 77% of online retailers noticed a ‘substantial’ increase in online sales on ‘Cyber Monday’. (Telegraph)

The theory behind this increase in online traffic is the fact that the Monday after Thanksgiving is a national holiday and therefore more people have access to their computers to buy their Christmas gifts.

When are they?

Black Friday - Friday 25th November 2016

Cyber Monday – Monday 28th November 2016

When will the deals start?

If we take a look back over the last 6 years, the sales tend to extend beyond those original 24 hours. Retailers are starting earlier and earlier in the hope of capitalising on consumers' pre-Christmas shopping spirit, with many treating the event as a period as opposed to one day. This can also be seen by the extension of the sales right through until Cyber Monday.

One thing is for sure, 2016 is set to be another manic year both in supermarkets and probably even more so online across the full week with electronics being the main focus.