The winter trading season, which accounts for more than 40% of annual sales for the trade, is already underway. The starting gun began this week with the singles day or 11.11 and the consumerist party of the Black Friday (November 26), Ciber Monday (following Monday) and the Christmas. A poker of commercial dates that arrive within the framework of a very strong demand from consumers, a limited supply of some products and rising costs of raw materials. Sales and promotions are the protagonists of the conference, despite the fact that price monitoring studies always point out that average tickets will not show large discounts. In any case, the Chinese giant Aliexpress said this week that the reduction reached 70% on Thursday, while Amazon advances Black Friday offers of between 15% and 40%. The key for companies in the face of this commercial challenge is to get the stock policy and logistics services right in a context of uncertainties but clear signs of good sales.
Commerce cannot turn its back on opportunities for consumer euphoria and this year’s Black Friday brings new ingredients and shopping trends non-existent in the past. Esade professor Juan Pedro Aznar recalls that 70% of GDP depends on family consumption, which is why it is the fundamental vaccine to ensure economic growth: «These are the first normal Christmases since the pandemic and with a very high savings rate. high by families, so expectations are positive; the definitive accolade. The only negative is that prices are going to be higher than last year. ‘
For the consulting firm Nielsen, one of the factors to take into account this year is the relevance of social media and live selling or ‘live commerce’ for which companies with a commercial vocation must prepare. Second, Nielsen warns that despite the fact that 88% of Spaniards admit to having bought a product on the internet in the last three months, there is a reduction in the average connection time to the internet. The double screen effect is also growing (use of mobile phones simultaneously with television, for example). All these changes force companies to diversify their advertising investments, draw up more precise marketing strategies adapted to their loyal customers and forget a recent past in which they were limited to having a website to sell on the internet.
Despite the increase in buyer mood prediction tools, this year’s new Black Friday is configured with various auspices. For Milanuncios, Spaniards will spend an average of 242 euros on Black Friday. According to data from this portal, 76% of consumers will buy on Black Friday, and half of these will do so ‘online’. The data from PcComponentes are more cautious and suggest that 25% of Spaniards will buy in the promotion of the last week of November. For the Aecoc association, which brings together more than 30,000 distribution companies and manufacturers, 34% of Spaniards plan to advance their Christmas purchases to Black Friday. The Privalia firm points out that the purchase intention this year will translate into an expense of between 100 and 300 euros per person (24%, 300 euros or more).
Although price is the definitive factor for 80% of Spanish consumers, the current situation is not particularly conducive to discounts in the face of strong demand prospects. According to Idealo, despite the stabilization of the pandemic, the logistics and transportation crisis, rising commodity prices and a shortage of microchips can cause stock problems. At least in specific products. The key for companies is not to incur excess stocks, which would lead to more sales in January, for example. But for the moment the situation is waiting before the evolution of the demand. For the consumer, Black Friday will not necessarily be the right time to make cheaper purchases, although all firms have advanced their purchases from suppliers and enlarged stocks as much as possible to face the final stretch of the year and take advantage of the foreseeable high demand .
The example of 2020 could be repeated this year. In the last Black Friday campaign, prices were lower in the last week of October than in the last week of November. The Organization of Consumers and Users corroborates this perception and ensures that its controls detected in 2020 that prices rose 2.6% on average during the week of Black Friday. There is a real sense in commerce that if pre-Black Friday sales are going well there will be no reason to erode margins and offer mega discounts.
While the bachelor’s day It is still a 24-hour marathon of promotional effort, Black Friday has denied being a day of discounts to consolidate itself as a variable sales period according to the strategies of each chain. The ‘Black Offers Operation’, in force at FNAC from November 1 to 18, wants to advance discounts. Black Friday will last from November 19 to 28 for FNAC. Other firms such as El Corte Inglés are more reserved, given a situation that they confess has been “very good” in recent weeks and with a great face-to-face commercial activity. Black Friday will focus on El Corte Inglés in four days of sale. The undoubted rise of online commerce does not diminish the attractiveness of physical commerce. 64% of consumers plan to buy in physical stores, according to a study carried out by Johnson Controls, and 59% in online stores, data that corroborates the intuition that buyers buy omnichannel indistinctly, depending on needs punctual, opportunity costs and attractive prices.
Sellers’ strategies
The particular situation has invited this commercial quarter to have been specially planned by the sellers. But at the same time, some companies confess that they have reserved a certain margin of maneuver in the face of the uncertainties of the sale or the available stock. The industry has not hesitated to launch messages that have contributed to the uncertainty of whether there will be enough stock. The fact that It is estimated that there are more than 50,000 million euros of saved savings in Spain by individuals (as a result of lower spending during the pandemic in travel or catering), makes the possibility of a dream business quarter be credible. In the case of Black Friday commercial promotions on the internet, the elements that will most influence purchases are free shipping, discounts, easy payment process and available ratings or reviews. The product categories that are most bought in the store are food, medicines and household cleaning products. On the other hand, in the digital purchase travel or tourist services, telecommunications products and video games have a greater output. Saving time is a fundamental element for 61% of buyers. According to data from Nielsen, sellers of fashion, electronics or financial services are going to have to divide their efforts between the channel ‘on line’ and ‘off line’, since consumers use both ways to find the product they like. .
For Nielsen, sellers must be attentive to their commercial policy in social networks, presence through ‘influencers’ and in new proposals such as the so-called Livestream Shopping (live sale, sale-entertainment). In Spain, Nielsen ensures that only 11% of consumers have bought through a live broadcast (livestream commerce). In the case of China, this purchasing method went from generating 3,000 million euros in 2017 to 171,000 million in 2020. Aliexpress is the great supporter of this type of trading strategies and it already launched them in Spain on 11.11. 75% of Chinese citizens bought via live broadcast last year and the percentage for this year is forecast to be over 80%.
Related news
Nielsen highlights that social media is introducing radical changes in the way you consume. Facebook continues as a fundamental transmitter of information among those over 50, but other alternatives such as TikTok earn integers as the network with the greatest potential for future growth (Twitch, in the field of video games). For Maira Barcellos, Market Leader of Nielsen in Spain and Portugal, “although we spend less time connected to the internet than before and during the pandemic, the use of the network has increased to 76 hours for the younger generations (up to 29 years old) . Around 40% of the weekly time potential consumers are online, generally watching television while browsing on social networks (77% with mobile). Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are the most used networks. 65% of consumers They recognize that the opinions and promotions made by influencers impact their perception of brands and products, which is why they are in the crosshairs of companies.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com