For millions of people Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, which takes place every year on the last Thursday of November. The day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and, as such, it is the perfect opportunity for some serious shopping, even before the turkey leftovers are gone.

Since Black Friday is not only the Friday after Thanksgiving but also one of the major shopping days of the year in the United States – if not the greatest –,  many employees have the day off, obviously except those working in retail, even if it is not recognized as an official US holiday.

The term “Black Friday” appeared in the ‘60s and the story behind it refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” at a time when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink was used to indicate a loss, and black a profit. So, as the story goes, after a whole year of operating at a loss (“in the red”) stores would supposedly make a profit (“went into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving.

Why is it so popular?

Retailers soon realized they could attract big crowds of people by consistently cutting prices and Black Friday became the very day to shop, proving even better than last-minute Christmas sales. Some retailers usually put their items up for sale on the morning of Thanksgiving, or more recently, inform their custumers by email about their online specials days or weeks before the actual event. The most shopped for items are usually electronics, but prices are slashed on everything from home decoration to cars.

Black Friday is a long exhausting day for both consumers and businesses, with many retailers opening up at 5 am or even earlier to hordes of people waiting impatiently outside the windows, in the freezing temperatures, an image we often see in the news reports that day. Nowadays, most large retailers post their Black Friday discounts, coupons and offers online to inform consumers about sales and thus give them the chance to plan their purchases.

Other companies take a different approach, waiting until the last moment to release their discount ads, trying to build up hype and keep customers engaged by periodically checking back for news about sales.

However, the trend moves towards online shopping, people wanting to avoid waiting outside in the cold or battling over the last most-wanted items. The benefit of online shopping is that you will know right away if the flat-screen TV you dreamed of is out of stock, and can easily find another one elsewhere.

Black Friday in the EU

Americans aren’t the only shoppers going crazy about November sales events. Black Friday has gone global, in fact.

It’s no longer a secret that Thanksgiving week sales events, such as Thanksgiving day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, hit record highs in the United States, which is why these late-November, “uniquely American” sales events are spreading across the world, with the widest adoption in European markets such as the UK, France and Germany.

Black Friday deals were introduced in Europe by Amazon back in 2010, when it presented its online Black Friday sales to the UK market. Then most local retailers followed in their footsteps and, in some cases, the result has been frenzied customer behavior, just like in the States. Obviously, incidents similar to those happening in the US also erupted among European sale-hungry shoppers.

However, most large European retailers are reportedly planning to hold Black Friday sales this year and the phenomenon is spreading fast.

Known for their powerful economies, France and Germany retailers have also embraced the sales frenzy and just like in the US and UK, these companies have seen most of their Black Friday revenue generated through online and mobile sales.

There are statistics and studies trying to understand how robustly European shoppers are embracing online sales, and examined data from several major retailers on European online markets indicates that Black Friday is apparently a bigger hit than Cyber Monday probably because this name is not yet as easily recognized.

For those that do not know, Cyber Monday follows after the Thanksgiving weekend and focuses solely on online sales and discounts and is preferred by those consumers who try to avoid the Black Friday rush.

Black Friday at Samdam Retail

Following the general trend, we too are at the moment preparing our Black Friday Sale for the end of the week so that our customers can enjoy price cuts on our most popular products. Right now, we can only tell you that you will be able to benefit from huge discounts on amazing travel bags, trolleys, school bags, wallets and so much more.

If you don’t want to miss any info regarding Samdam’s Black Friday sale, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with offers and discounts.

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