Black Friday roundup: Scenes + updates from the shopping trenches

Last week’s Black Friday was the first in three years free of COVID restrictions. Would this mean shoppers would return to the crazy tradition of waking up before dawn and standing in line for doorbuster deals?

Would they stick with pandemic-era shopping habits and surf for discounts at all hours during the holiday weekend?

Or… would they steer clear of Black Friday altogether as inflation takes its toll on their pocketbooks?

Would economists be on the money with predictions of a looming recession impacting purchases, or would brands see their e-commerce holiday offers begin to reward them?

To get a glimpse into Black Friday 2022 (and the weekend), here’s a collection of social media posts – we’ll take a deeper dive into the data next week.

Score!

When dragging yourself out of bed to go to the mall early pays off.

Black Friday regrets

The post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy just ain’t what it used to be.

Thanks to the internet, Black Friday doesn’t actually begin (or end) on Friday anymore, and it can be a pretty underwhelming experience in-person when you’re used to literally fighting the crowds to score a deal.

Economic outlook: Forecast not quite clear

As numbers start to come in, analysts are only beginning to study the data – and you’ll find differing opinions on how things really went, and what it all means. 

Of course, none of the data yet accounts for the number of e-commerce returns that will happen – or how much those returns will ding the bottom line.

The high cost of e-commerce returns: A trillion dollar problem

Marketing metrics often overlook the high rate of e-commerce product returns, which is extremely costly to retailers. As global e-commerce continues to grow, the amount of returns is expected to cost retailers more than a trillion dollars a year.

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