While conventional wisdom may hold that Black Friday, famed and feared throughout retail stores nation wide, is the biggest shopping year, this has not always been the case. In fact, Black Friday was nowhere near the top 10 shopping days of the year for the vast majority of the 20th century. However, a great marketing team and aggressive advertisement of deals can go a long way to changing the traffic of a day. The top five busiest shopping days of the year, measured by foot traffic in U.S. stores, may be a surprise.
Black Friday
While Black Friday was not a major holiday for most of the history of America, recent marketing campaigns have put it on the cultural shopping map. The day after Thanksgiving, the date changes every year in accordance with the last Thursday in November. This date now heralds the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, which is the busiest season of the year for sales and shopping.
Super Saturday
Super Saturday is also squarely located in the Christmas season. This date, the Saturday before Christmas, does not usually offer the same kind of sales that Black Friday does. Despite the fact that many stores are not offering the same kind of sales, some do offer year-round sales especially online, such as 15% off clothing, shoes, jewelry, intimates, handbags & accessories.
While the day after Valentine’s Day is the best day for discounted chocolates, the day after Christmas is a huge shopping day for more than one reason. First, because many popular items that are commonly given as Christmas gifts will be heavily discounted. This entices shoppers to stock up, or to take advantage of cheaply-priced items that are usually much more expensive. Secondly, many shoppers come to stores to return gifts with which they are not entirely satisfied. This contributes to a great deal of foot traffic; while many shoppers only go in to return items, the act of being inside the store is a strong incentive to buy something.
December 23
December 23 is the last non-holiday time to buy before Christmas. It is a perpetual favorite with procrastinating shoppers, and consistently sees massive foot traffic.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is another big shopping day that has been created by the media and by advertisers solely in the last few years. Online shopping is increasing exponentially with every year since the advent of the internet. More and more people are choosing every year to spend their shopping time sitting on a couch instead of fighting the crowds in the stores. Stores, meanwhile, like online shoppers because they decrease the wear and tear on the store and overhead, while offering the same convenient sales. Cyber Monday is a new invention of modern shopping to offer extreme deals on products purchased online the Monday after Christmas, and these deals are a massive contributing factor in making
Cyber Monday one of the biggest shopping days of the year by money spent in sales in America all year.
