advantages and disadvantages that companies suffer from
It has appeared on the Spanish commercial calendar for just over ten years and, according to experts, has already become campaign with the highest sales volume of the yearover January, Christmas and Valentine’s Day sales. He Black Friday This is already a key date for consumption: 70% of Spaniards plan to buy something this season – 22% more than last year – and spend an average of 280 euros, according to the Setelema Observatory. This a priori generates a peak in sales, but… Are these all benefits for companies?
Managing such a campaign not only means increasing sales, but also a lot of effort in logistics And cost overrun. “In general, no company likes to concentrate their sales too much on peaks, and they prefer each week to be similar to the previous one,” Iñigo Gallo, professor of marketing at IESE Business School, explains to RTVE.es.
“Unfortunate location” in the Spanish calendar
According to some experts, the main benefit of Black Friday for brands is improve your image. “This is a very good communication campaign because it is more focused on creating marketing than actually applying discounts,” explains Albert Viñals, professor of consumer psychology at ESIC and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to RTVE.es.
However, he believes that this consumer “festival” “makes more sense” in the United States because it coincides with the day after Thanksgiving, a holiday when “as many or more gifts are given as at Christmas.”
“In Spain, many companies retail (retail) I think so poorly placed on the calendar, this is a very unfortunate date.”– he notes. This happens in the fall, the “low selling season” after the summer boom, and for the Vinyals, “putting offers in close to Christmas is not a good idea because although you sell a lot, you invoice few.”
But why? According to both experts, since companies lose profit compared to decades agosince what they sell on these discounted dates used to be billed a few weeks later at Christmas, one of the “historically most expensive” seasons.
So, Why do companies continue to join this phenomenon? “Many people do this out of fear of being left behind and being overtaken by competitors,” Vinyals says. According to him, evidence of this is that they sometimes resort to “traps”, such as raising the prices of goods before lowering them. Local businesses are perhaps the most reluctant to embrace this “festival” of consumption, not least because they cannot accommodate sales just before Christmas.
In any case, both agree that Black Friday has ‘very future’especially because “It’s still starting in Spain”and could follow in the footsteps of other more traditional countries, such as the United States, where it began to become popular in the 1960s. However, there are some. Conditions that can stop your momentum in the coming years.
What can stop your momentum?
Black Friday brings variety from electronics to various sectors and, moreover, it has gone from coinciding with one day to lasting one or several weeks. There are studies that show that transforms the European marketWhere are the Black Friday 2023 sales? they grew by 175% relative to 2022 and in Spain they grew by 93%According to Remazing, an organization that studies e-commerce strategies.
“In Spain it is expected to continue to grow for at least the next two or three years. There are some aspects that can soften your dynamic.“,” Gallo points out. One of them, perhaps the most immediate this year, is the effect DANA in Spain, which “could shake up consumption data to some extent,” the expert explains.
This also indicates macroeconomic forecast of the country for 2025 and 2026. There are organizations that forecast that Spain’s GDP growth will exceed 2.5% this year (the IMF estimates it at 2.9% this year), but will reduce it to around 2% over the next two years – the IMF estimates it at 2.1% in 2025. This can reduce family expenses during periods of intense consumption.
On a more social level, another aspect that may influence is black friday cancellation from the point of view ecological, as this is the season when packaging usage and shipments skyrocket, affecting pollution. “Environmental sensitivity is growing, and this will be seen in the coming years,” says Gallo.
On the other hand, we must not forget mistrust that consumers already have regarding advertised discounts. Organizations like OCU report that there are companies that “inflate” the prices of items in the weeks leading up to Black Friday to simulate a bigger discount than they actually are. “Surprisingly, despite this, sales are growing more and more every year,” admits Vinyals.
In addition, this year the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and the 2030 Agenda announced that it would monitor price movements to prevent the emergence of “false discounts” following the sanctions it had already imposed last year.
Focus on the “increasingly strategic” consumer
This mistrust is part of what has made consumers more planners, and brands are taking this into account.
“Black Friday is no longer a surprise, and the consumer has time to better organize their purchase, so each purchase becomes more strategic,” Gallo says. Many companies have been announcing discounts since October, and the buyer, the expert points out, ends up taking a discounted item for which he would otherwise pay a higher price. “All this happens because companies encourage you to wait. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot“, he clarifies.
As a result, more and more people They are promoting the purchase of Christmas giftsand many do this even though they realize that the discounts may not be as significant as they seem. “They do it because it’s obvious they’ll get something cheaper in a few weeks,” says Viñals, who believes that if Black Friday ends in the future, it will be more due to company initiatives than consumers.
It’s Not Just Black Friday: The Industry Is Already Targeting Cyber Week
The Black Friday calendar has expanded in recent years. In fact, other dates have emerged that are gradually becoming more important, such as Singles’ Day — Singles Day, November 11 — and Cyber Monday — first Monday after Black Friday —.
As a result, the environment marketing already points to a new concept, Cyber week or Cyber Five, which spans the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
This is a relatively recent and rapidly developing term because in 2023 record $38 billion in sales results in the USA, 7.8% more than in 2022, according to Adobe data cited in a report by business school OBS (see PDF). Overall, Adobe expects online shopping to generate $40.6 billion this year over the period, up 7% from last year.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in Spain, there are also companies that are promoting this Cyber Week and many experts are focused on promoting Cyber Week. Singles’ Day, which originated more than 30 years ago in China and could shape trade policy in the coming years. “What could happen in the medium term is that Black Friday will move to Singles Day, which will benefit businesses because it’s even further away from Christmas,” Vinyals explains.
In any case, the expansion of November as a pre-Christmas shopping period is obvious. This plays in favor of compulsive consumption around the world, but also gives something to think about.
“Ideally there should be a little calm,” says Gallo, who advocates “conscious capitalism” Where Companies continue to sell, but not at any price. “Human marketing You’ll think Black Friday was a success, but it’s a headache for transport and logistics,” he explains.
Moreover, he calls think about business strategy. It’s likely that many brands will sell more in November than they did last year, but that shouldn’t be the main goal: “It’s not just about sales in November, but throughout the rest of the year. So as these days pass, a smart manager should ask himself, “Has this brought me rewards on a global level?”