Black Friday was once the king of all shopping. A retailer could make its year up on that one day, often by gimmicking its way to insane single-day volume. Those days, however, are certainly over. Though the day after Thanksgiving still means a great deal, as the annual flood of viral consumer brawl videos demonstrate, it’s just not what it once was.
The change has meant something in terms of economic commentary, too. Over the last several years, really going back to 2014, the internet has been given more of the central stage. Even the National Retailer Federation (NRF), the retail industry trade group tasked with promoting the retail industry as best as it can, has altered the way it will report Black Friday estimates for 2017.
It used to be that the closely watched NRF numbers would hit early on the Monday following all the hoopla. That particular day is now known as Cyber Monday, another big shopping day in the virtual retailer world. Stores and sellers aren’t as big on reporting only their traditional estimates because they have fallen off remarkably without this new addition to the commercial festivities.
From the NRF:
To more accurately capture the entirety of spending on Thanksgiving weekend, NRF this year will release spending data on November 28, the day after Cyber Monday. Doing so will allow NRF to provide a more accurate picture of consumer activity over the entire weekend and incorporate Cyber Monday data into the results. As consumer behavior evolves, NRF will continue to focus its efforts on providing the most relevant, accurate and insightful analysis of its impact on the retail industry.
The focus on Black Friday wasn’t really what it seemed to be anyway. What’s truly important in the retail calendar is more than just the one day or weekend (extended). Analysts would often use Black Friday as a measuring stick for anticipating the Christmas shopping season as a whole. If consumers were highly engaged just after Thanksgiving, it was widely believed, the remaining weeks were as likely quite promising.
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