1、November 2018 Black Friday: Shifting its centre of gravity By Tim Denison 2 Black Friday Shifting its centre of gravity In 2018, Black Friday falls on 23rd November, the earliest since 2012. Tim Denison takes us on a tour of the history of this prominent date in the retail calendar, identifies some
2、successes (and failures) along the way, and offers some thoughts as to what the next few years might bring. Black Friday: its heritage From humble beginnings in Philadelphia some 50 years ago, “Black Friday” has become a global retail phenomenon thanks largely to the internet and the media. The Sale
3、s extravaganza was originally conceived as a one-day bargain bonanza in shops, to be held on the day after Thanksgiving Day in America, designed to kick-start the Christmas shopping season. In actual fact, it only became a national US fixture in the 1990s and only surpassed the Saturday before Chris
4、tmas Day as the busiest shopping day of the year there in 2005. But since then it hasnt looked back. In 2011 Walmart controversially opened its stores on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, breaking the midnight curfew for the first time. Today it is no longer a 24-hour national sprint, but a multi-day
5、 international marathon loved by the media awe- struck by the speed and spread of its advance. Black Friday is no longer a store-based event with Cyber Monday now following on its tail as its online counter-part. Such is the omni-channel nature of retailing today that the promotional period has meld
6、ed into one. Stepping out Black Friday found its way across its first country border in 2009, with American retailers launching it in Canada, despite their own Thanksgiving Day being held a month earlier than in the United States. That same crusading approach has served American retailers very well