Following the frenzy of the shopping phenomena that was Black Friday, pre-Christmas promotions are continuing albeit at a lower rate. According to SalesGossip, the website and mobile app which advertises fashion and beauty promotions in one place, it‘s the retailers who are avoiding the blanket discounts that are the ones to watch.
Black Friday was used to create momentum in the run up to Christmas and capture early Christmas shoppers and SalesGossip saw more than double (a 137% increase) in the number of retailers with Black Friday offers compared to the same time last year. This, and the subsequent pre-Christmas promotions where SalesGossp has seen a 48% increase compared to last year, indicates just how competitive the current retail market is. The sale site is also predicting that this level of competition is pulling pre-boxing day sales and promotions to as early as Sunday 21st December this year.
Certain retailers‘ tactical marketing departments have planned engaging campaigns to drive pre-Christmas online traffic and in-store footfall. Using advent-style calendars and the ‘12 days of Christmas‘ theme, these retailers are offering a different deal every day or discounts on specific product categories for one or two days only in the run up to Christmas. This is flash sales at their best, attracting shoppers back each day to find out what the new promotion is before tempting them to buy in both that category as well as full price categories. Because these retailers are using the appealing carrot of promotions on new season stock, it has the added advantage of being attractive to a wide range of shoppers.
Elizabetta Camilleri, CEO and co-founder of SalesGossip, comments:
“Following Black Friday, we‘ve seen a lot of retailers running pre-Christmas promotions. Understandably, many of them are doing so to respond to promotions from their direct competitors. For me, retailers who are using flash sales and discounts on specific product categories to pique shopper interest and maximise returning traffic and footfall are incredibly smart – they‘re competing without killing their profits.”
Going forward, although some Boxing Day promotions will start as early as December 21st, Boxing Day will still remain key and offer new promotions for a wide variety of retailers. SalesGossip expects to have at least 900 brand and retailer promotions live that day and also estimates that Christmas Day will be as popular as ever with all Christmas Day inventory sold faster than any other day of the year so far. It‘s possible Christmas Day and Boxing Day will surpass the Black Friday weekend in terms of number of live promotions.
