Black Friday: How Low Will Millennials Go?
November 21, 2017
During the biggest retail holiday of the season, we took it to the streets to understand more about millennial shopping habits during Black Friday weekend. From impulse buys to deep discounts, our interviewees elaborate on their purchase behaviors and tell us what they’re looking forward to this holiday season.
This is The 19. In 19 minutes or less, game-changing insights in retail from Orange Label, the leading response marketing agency for established brands that are driven by a fearless entrepreneurial mindset.
Hello, and welcome to the third and final installment of our clicks versus bricks series. I’m Gina, and as some of you may already know, I’m a copywriter here at Orange Label, and we have a pretty timely episode in store for you today. But before we dive right into it, I want to take you back to 2002. The second generation of iPods were the latest and greatest tech, Kelly Clarkson had won the first season of American Idol, and Spiderman with Toby Maguire and James Franco was the highest grossing film of the year.
2002 is also the beginning of a significant trend for retailers, according to Time magazine, it was the first year Black Friday was named the biggest shopping day of the season. From then on, Black Friday sales would continue to grow year after year, only taking a major hit during the great recession of 2008. This year, RetailMeNot surveyed 1,015 U.S. consumers to find out more about their holiday shopping habits.
Visit our website atorangelabelmarketing.com, and contact us, and be sure to tune in for our next episode. Be sure to subscribe to The 19 on iTunes and Google Play. And if you like what you heard today, leave us a review. Researchers uncovered that the average shopping planned to spend $743 dollars during this coming Black Friday Weekend. Last year, that average was $505 dollars. With seven in ten shoppers participating in Black Friday deals, 2017 is projected to be one of the most lucrative Black Fridays the country has seen to date, potentially bringing in $682 billion dollars as estimated by the National Retail Federation. But why wait? Major retail brands have already kicked off their so-called Black Friday deals weeks in advance. On November 12th, The Verge announced that Best-Buy, eBay, and Amazon have already enrolled deep discounts on electronics, appliances, and other big ticket items.
Even national holidays are fair game. Kohl’s, for example, plans on kicking off their Black Friday sales on 5 P.M. on Thanksgiving Day. Because, you know, who needs turkey and stuffing when you can get a 55 inch 4k TV for under $300 dollars? Black Friday is clearly top of mind for many retailers, and as we see these global brands preparing for a weekend of unbelievable profit, it makes you wonder. Who are the people making these purchases?
The National Retail Federation sums it up in one word. Millennials. In today’s episode of The 19, we’re exploring Millennial shopping habits during Black Friday weekend. We talked to Millennials on both ends of the age group. Dads, young professionals, and recent college grads to uncover more about their holiday retail plans, and learn just how important Black Friday is to this generation of shoppers. Please note that these interviews have taken place in a variety of locations, so sounds quality will vary.
Doorbuster. It’s a word that’s become synonymous with holiday shopping, and we’ve seen it so many times that it comes off as pretty innocent and unremarkable. But if we actually break it down and take a second look, the definition of doorbuster is pretty frightening. When you check the news during Black Friday, you will no doubt find fifty plus photos of harrowing crowds fighting for the last Star Wars LEGO set or remote-control drone. Black Friday has earned reputation for being chaotic, even dangerous, catering to shoppers who are so eager for a good deal, they’re willing to bust down a door for it. When we interviewed our group of millennial shoppers, fear of in-store shopping during Black Friday was prevalent to say the least.
Male Millennial: I don’t think it’s worth it. So I’d rather pay the full price than go in and be in a stampede of people.
Female Millennial: To be in a store I would feel very claustrophobic, so I’d rather just shop online.
Male Millennial: Black Friday has turned into such an event, the chaos and the frustration of going into a store during those busy days and waiting in the lines is not worth the savings.
And this apprehension to go in store is pushing shoppers toward another retail holiday.
Male Millennial: I do shop a little bit on Cyber Mondays.
Male Millennial: I would say I’m more of a Cyber Monday shopper.
Female Millennial: I’m actually not a Black Friday shopper, so more of Cyber Monday.
Male Millennial: I’m a Cyber Monday shopper.
In 2016, Fortune called Cyber Monday “The biggest day in the history of U.S. E-Commerce,” with consumers spending 3.45 billion dollars online. And one of the best parts of Cyber Monday is the variety that comes with online shopping. This Cyber Monday, our shoppers planned on buying everything from electronics to clothing.
Male Millennial: I feel like the deals over Black Friday and Cyber Monday are usually the best for consumer electronics, largely because I don’t think those types of products are typically discounted too much throughout the year.
Male Millennial: Mainly clothes. Patagonia and North Face. I’m really into shoes, so I buy a lot of Vans and I buy a lot of Adidas.
Female Millennial: Probably clothes and shoes.
Plus, there’s a comfort that comes with the convenience of shopping at home, especially during the holidays.
Male Millennial: The pure convenience of not having to drive to a mall, not having to deal with parking lots and walking to a store. Whereas I can quickly know what product I want to buy online and within a few clicks it can show up at my doorstep, within a few days to a week later.
Male Millennial: People don’t want to leave their homes and if you don’t have to leave your home, then why would you? I can be on my laptop in my bed and shop for the same stuff.
Male Millennial: Personally, I want to be sitting at home on the couch, watching football and hanging out with my family, not at a retail store.
The millennials we interviewed had different opinions when it comes to Black Friday shopping. But, when it comes to discounts, most of the shoppers we interviewed were open to receiving deals from their favorite brands, whether or not they were actively searching for discounts was an entirely different conversation.
Male Millennial: I don’t search for discounts. My searching is always more focused on the product I want to buy, and once I know what that product is, I will price check across a few different websites.
Male Millennial: If I want something I’ll go and get it, so I don’t really wait for discounts, but if it’s there, I’m like oh, cool, that worked out. If I open up the email and it’s not worth the deal, I just delete it right then and there.
And a discount might even convince a shopper to make an impulse buy.
Male Millennial: Discounts impact my shopping because it usually makes me a little bit more willing to pull the trigger to actually buy a product if I wasn’t necessarily planning to do it already. Granted, that said it’s gotta be usually a deep enough discount to justify doing that.
Ah, yes. Deep discounts. This was a particular point of contention among our interviewees. The majority were skeptical of slashed prices, and many wondered if extra discounted products were even worth purchasing at all.
Female Millennial: I think it depends on what the coupon is if it’s like a percentage off, if it’s enough to where it’s not just ten percent, which is like the tax, then I would use a coupon. But if it’s something pretty low where like five dollars off if you spend fifty, then that doesn’t motivate me at all to spend more than fifty dollars.
Male Millennial: When they send you fifty to seventy percent off, it’s usually clothes that nobody really wants anymore, so they’re just trying to make money off of it.
Male Millennial: A lot of sites will, typically before a big promotion it seems like they will raise the price, and then promote it at the same deal price that maybe they were or even higher as previously but giving the impression that it’s a deal.
Male Millennial: I rarely want to purchase something at full price. Because I know I can wait a week, a month, a couple months, and get something at thirty, forty percent off the listed prices. In some ways, what I see in my e-mail inbox as discounts really just feels like the normal price.
And millennials aren’t just buying everything in sight. They’re methodical, only buying out of necessity.
Female: I’m actually pretty stingy with my money. So, I don’t, like I said, I don’t spend money unless I like absolutely need to buy something and something’s falling apart. I don’t just like, splurge on things.
And some have even figured out a way to game the system entirely.
Male Millennial: I shop at REI a lot. That’s an e-mail that I wait for, I think it’s like three or four times a year, where it’s a 25 percent off coupon, but I kind of figured out that you can use that coupon online as many times as you want as long as you’re buying one item at a time. That’s the e-mail I wait for, I’ll wait for that.
Male Millennial: As you kinda get more deeper in to the e-commerce world you realize that it’s worth it to hold out for large parts of the year on big purchases to wait until you get to those days. You know, usually if you’re, if you want a TV or computer or something like that that’s a few hundred dollars, at this point nowadays you’ve learned that if you can hold out until you get to mid to late November that you can truly save several hundred dollars on a purchase.
So how did millennials become so financially savvy?
Male Millennial: I’m surrounded by people that are older all the time, and they’ve kind of guided me to manage my money. I’m trying to learn from an older generation. Because they’ve been through it all, I guess.
Male Millennial: In college, you learn that some things are more important than others, and some things can wait a couple of months. So I think definitely college prepared me for that behavior.
During these interviews, millennials proved to be anything but frivolous in their holiday shopping habits. The more we conversed, the more we discovered that there was intention and careful planning behind every purchase. And, more than anything, our interviewees just wanted to spend their holidays away from the crowds, at home, with family. And maybe this makes sense, because, after all, isn’t family what the holidays are all about?
Before we conclude, let’s go over the sum-up, the portion of the episode that tells you exactly how this information falls under the umbrella of response marketing. Whether you’re a brick and mortar store, or an online marketplace, Black Friday weekend is set to be the shopping even of the year. Many shoppers will be leaving the Thanksgiving table early to take advantage of doorbuster sales, purchasing the latest in clothing, electronics, and more. Millennials, however, are taking a different approach to holiday shopping, waking up early for Cyber Monday deals that combine all the convivence and comfort of shopping at home with the deep discounts they’re looking for in a retail holiday.
During other times of year, millennials want to stay updated on the latest deals from their favorite brands, signing up for newsletters as their primary source of information. It’s when brands start to spam discount emails, that this method of marketing becomes convoluted, and even a little annoying to the millennial demographic.
In these interviews, we learned that millennials are conscientious buyers. They purchase out of need, not want, and they’re strategic in their buying habits. For example, if a coupon offers too deep a discount, millennials will approach the deal with caution, fearing that the items are so poorly made, the brand is practically giving them away. Instead, they would rather wait for their favorite, trusted brands to host a seasonal sale, where a product’s quality and durability is guaranteed. The younger generation of shoppers are more resourceful and pragmatic than ever. They’re thinking about a product’s long-term value and getting the most bang for their buck. To them, the price doesn’t have to just be right, it has to feel right. Because life has taught these millennials that some deals are just too good to be true.
Thank you for listening to The 19: Clicks vs. Bricks Part Three, Black Friday: How Low Will Millennials Go? If you have additional thoughts on this topic, please share them with us. Visit our website,orangelabelmarketing.com, and contact us. And be sure to tune in for our next episode of The 19: Retail, where we will discuss video marketing best practices.
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