And here we go again – we are just a week away from the craziest shopping event of the year when crowds go mad, prices drop and best deal ads take over our personal and online space. This year, Black Friday falls on November 24th 2017 and we doubt it will be less interesting than the previous ones when it comes to forecasts and figures. Originally USA shopping day, this phenomenon eventually spread all over the world and many countries practise it. Canada is one of them, so let’s find out more about some interesting facts related to the connection between Black Friday and it’s lovers in Canada.
The first Black Friday in Canada happened almost a decade ago in 2008. Ever since then, Black Friday has continued to grow in the Great White North. In 2012, Canadian retailers have managed to shift the interest of buyers travelling to USA for better bargains, to the local market, so soon they made this day an official special sales date. The popularity of Black Friday in Canada has been on the rise for the past number of years. The interest of Canadians continues to grow with each year to come. In the past, Black Friday deals only lasted for a single day. Today, deals startup to one week beforehand and last until Cyber Monday, which makes it around ten days of crazy shopping deals, in total. Figures show that Canadian people would far rather buy in-store than online. The data of Statistics Canada from last year say only 0.5 per cent of the sales for Canadian bricks and mortar retailers come from e-commerce. Last year data from the same company reveal that in-store retail accounted for 98 per cent of Canadian retail sales, a total of $389 billion out of the $397-billion in sales — in the first nine months of 2016.
Canadians&BF – survey of IPG Mediabrands states that every year about 1.2 million Canadians plan to be „sick“on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. More than 6 million employees tend to take a „vacation day“. Clothing and accessories seem to be the most popular items, with 52% of buyers, followed by technical goods, 44%. Canadians obviously like staying polite and calm, as only 12% of them said they would get into an argument over a good deal.
Top products – Although it is hard to predict what the most selling item of Black Friday will be, from year to year brands such as Apple and Amazon take the top spot as the nation’s most popular brands, according to data from voucher website Vouchercloud. Some of the products that might boom will be: the new Xbox One X, the Nintendo Switch, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with decent chance iPhone 8/8 Plus to be discounted as well. Also, expect to see better deals on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and newer flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ and Google Pixel 2/2 XL. Hope for plenty of discounted 4K televisions, including premium OLED models too.
Fun facts – the term Black Friday was used for the first time on 24th of September 1869 when two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, tried to corner the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange. The phrase remained in Philadelphia for a while and didn't become a national term until the 1990s. In Mexico, there is El Buen Fin, which roughly translates as the good weekend. It's pegged to the anniversary of Mexico's 1910 revolution, which sometimes falls on the same day as American Thanksgiving.
