It’s unclear whether Germans will strike on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale days, given tight crates and dwindling buying appetite. The signs are pretty bad.
A flood of special offers a few weeks before Christmas: With this concept, Black Friday has become one of the most important discount days of the year in recent years. Last year, consumers spent nearly five billion euros on Black Friday and the Cyber Monday that followed, according to the German Retailers Association (HDE).
But given inflation and tight budgets, it’s unclear whether the campaign will be able to continue the successes achieved this year. Especially since many consumers fear that the offer may be less attractive this time. After all, retailers are also struggling with rising costs.
Handelsverband Deutschland optimistic
HDE is optimistic: it expects a record sales of 5.7 billion euros, according to a survey of 1,000 online shoppers. This will be 22 percent more than the previous year. Stephan Tromp of the German Trade Association was convinced:
“Many customers are now looking for more bargains and want to take advantage of the two days’ offers,” he says. The sale days on November 25 and 28 this year would now also be used to spy on Christmas gifts. Gifts worth a total of 1.7 billion euros could be purchased later.
Black Friday: record year or failure?
Not all industry workers are so optimistic. Trade expert Gerrit Heinemann of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences assumes that retailers will remove all barriers on Black Friday to save a difficult year. But he has doubts that he will succeed.
“After all, the signs that another sales record will be broken this year are not so good,” says Heinemann – also because there are still problems in the supply chain. Retail expert Martin Fassnacht from the WHU business school in Düsseldorf is also skeptical:
Germans’ shopping behavior has changed
Basically, people’s interest in Black Friday is still high. According to a representative survey by management consulting firm PwC, two-thirds are willing to go bargain hunting despite inflation and tight budgets – as they did last year.
But shopping habits have changed. On the one hand, consumers are more reluctant to spend money, says PwC retail expert Christian Wulff. “On the other hand, they deliberately want to take advantage of special offers around Black Friday 2022 as they assume the price spiral will continue.”
According to the survey, about 40 percent of discount hunters only want to buy what they need. One in five people want to buy less due to circumstances.
There are hardly any real bargains on Black Friday
Bargain hunters are also well prepared this year, according to Simon-Kucher. About 70 percent had already observed the prices of the items they were interested in in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.
This approach is actually recommended. Because a study by the price comparison portal Idealo, which analyzes the price evolution of around 10,000 products from 1,000 categories, shows that real bargains are rare even on Black Friday. On average, offers last year were only five percent cheaper than the month before the campaign.
Source: ZDF
