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.
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.
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.
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.
