The Phone Will Rule Black Friday

Fighting to get in the door of a large retailer on Black Friday is no longer necessary to get the best deals. Now shopping happens in micro-moments on mobile devices in between physical locations and shopping activities. This holiday season, shopping will be all about the mobile phone -- for pre-shopping, for price comparisons in store and for shopping online. Though more than 60% of shoppers say they still prefer to shop in-store, 82% of smartphone users will consult their phone while in a store. And 54% of all holiday shoppers say that they plan to shop on their smartphones in spare moments throughout the day, like walking or commuting.This is fascinating: Because most people have the location data turned “on” on their phones, Google can track foot traffic in stores based on where people are physically located when they are searching on their phones while in a store. On Black Friday, store traffic is heaviest in the afternoon, not the morning. Traffic peaks on Black Friday for most stores between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. And surprisingly, Black Friday isn’t the biggest traffic day of the season for all stores. Consumer electronics and cellphone stores see peak traffic on Black Friday, but for other stores, the peak days occur closer to Christmas, specifically the Saturday before Christmas. source

Last year Cyber Monday raked in more than $2 billion for online retailers, 16% more than the previous year. Cyber Monday typically is made up of more retailer-wide discounts, rather than product-specific ones that you might see on Black Friday. But if a merchant stocked up on a product for Black Friday and then it didn’t sell as well as expected, there could be a deeper discount on Cyber Monday. Keep in mind though that most of the deals hit stores and online on Black Friday, meaning by the time Cyber Monday rolls around, some of the best savings have already been sold out. When you shop online, you're competing for items among nationwide shoppers. source

Don't forget to follow your favorite retailers on social media! Many brands will use their social media platforms to offer specials for those followers only.