Could Black Friday be losing its steam in Canada?
Perhaps. But there’s no shortage of deals in the days and weeks leading up to one of the biggest times of the year for retailers.
Coverage of Black Friday on Globalnews.ca:
“Black Friday a few years ago was literally the Friday and maybe the Saturday and Sunday. Now, it’s become almost a whole month of selling,” said David Ian Gray, the principal at DIG360, a consulting firm that helps retail executives grow their businesses.
Gray said he’s seeing less focus on a single day than the time of year in which it comes.
Dig360 partnered with Leger to produce a Black Friday study for 2016.
It found that over half of respondents (54 per cent) reported first seeing Black Friday deals on or before the second week in November.
READ MORE: Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for 2017
The 43 per cent of respondents who took advantage of deals started buying before the Black Friday weekend.
“So, in terms of the lustre of Black Friday, we’re really seeing it get diffused from a focal point of a day to just holiday sales,” Gray said.
A few years ago, a strong Canadian dollar motivated many retailers in the Great White North to put on their own Black Friday sales to prevent bargain hunters from heading south, but that’s not what retail experts are necessarily seeing now.
“2016 saw the highest level of Canadians, 51 per cent, ignoring Black Friday entirely since 2012, due to a reduction of ‘window shoppers,’ who are only browsing,” says Gray.
“Many of these are not the avid bargain hounds and believe through past experience they will get better deals later on in December.”
Still, many retailers are promising doorcrasher deals on Black Friday.
Canadian bargain-hunting website RedFlagDeals.com expects to see decent price reductions.
“Retailers are trying to get on earlier and earlier. You will still see some really good stuff on the actual day itself,” says RedFlagDeals.com’s Jeff Novak.
He has predicted discounts on many items including Bluetooth accessories, smart home products and 4K TV’s.
“We might see a sub-$500, 50-inch 4K TV for the first time this Black Friday,” Novak said.
Several more items are listed on the RedFlagDeal website, where you can also find Black Friday Flyers.
Canadian retailer London Drugs said it will reveal some of the lowest prices of the year on must-have products for the holidays, boasting hundreds of doorcrasher sales come Black Friday.
The retailer also said it’s paying close attention to Black Friday sales in both the U.S. and Canada to ensure it matches or beats prices on the most popular items.