10 Myths About Black Friday You Might Have Missed
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10 Myths About Black Friday You Might Have Missed

|Oct 17, 2018
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Black Friday is beyond a simple occasion to look for best deals, it is an international event which marks an important time during the busiest shopping time of the year. Many people wait for Black Friday for months just to get their hands on the products they need. However, since the event is so large and complex, it is bound to come with a few issues. Unfortunately, it has been linked with a few inaccuracies and making the most of Black Friday requires dealing with the myths, to begin with.

10 Myths About Black Friday

1.    Black Friday is a scam

Many shoppers have been led to believe that the products on sale for Black Friday would be scams. While there are plenty of products which are not really the best deals, there are many alternatives which offer serious discounts.

Black Friday is far from being a scam when it comes to the policies of certain stores. For example, there are businesses offer sales only on Black Friday and this can be a great time to purchase their products. One-days sales are often the best time to find real price drops through the entire season or even through the entire year.

Many offline and online stores even hire additional staff to help with the extra influx of business and they create teams and strategies for the best retail success. This success is seldom fake as sale professionals who plan them for months in advance know the competition is getting stiffer and mistakes are now easily penalized.

10 Myths About Black Friday2.    Black Friday requires customers to stand in line

One of the biggest myths about Black Friday comes with standing in line and people walking over each other for an affordable flat screen TV. But in reality, these are highlights and exceptions to the situation. First of all, stores are open for hours and it is often opening time which the busiest. Secondly, with the rise of e-commerce in the past decade, standing in line has become a thing of the past. It’s worth knowing that some deals are exclusive to physical stores while others are only available online. Businesses which have both types of stores can even offer separate deals for each type of customer.

While there is increased footfall during Black Friday, most shoppers can even avoid this simply by ordering online. It is then a matter of delivery time while waiting for the product or products online. It must also be said that many companies are paying for this false sense of urgency as it may suit their brand identity, but over the long term, serious businesses have managed to find the best strategies to maintain a civilized shopping experience even from the time the store’s doors are open.

3.    Buying online is risky and complicated

Another myth linked to Black Friday refers to the online shopping experience. Potential customers might even stay away from certain deals because they are not sure the products they see on the screen are actually the products they are going to get.

For example, Autonomous Smart Office retailer at https://www.autonomous.ai offers a minimalistic shopping experience. With clear product description which combines text, videos, and pictures, customers can get a clear idea on how their products look. Color selection for the office products is made with a couple of clicks. Warranty information is clearly visible and the customers also have access to social media channels for better company transparency. All of this shopping experience is completely secure so that the personal data of the customers are always safe.

It can be said that buying online during Black Friday is not risky if the website and store are professional. The purpose of the online shopping experience is to simplify the process as much as possible and customers have the ability to order their products in minutes.

10 Myths About Black Friday

4.    Free shipping is offered on Black Friday

While it’s true that there are shops offering free shipping for Black Friday deliveries, it has led to many assuming that this is actually the case for all purchases. But this is far from the truth. In reality, shipping is something which is handled individually by each business. It is why so many stores have their own shipping standards and policies.

For this purpose, minim orders are among the most important aspect to take into consideration when free shipping is advertised.  The idea is that marketers are those who advertise free shipping as a method to entice buyers, but at the same time, buyers need to know that many policies apply. For example, some items require different shipping fees from state to state. Other items are not shipped for free internationally.

Free shipping might also refer to standard shipping which can take longer than the 1-2 business day shipping many people expect. At the same time, shipping delays due to the high volume of online orders during Black Friday are common. It is why the free shipping policy has many particularities, it cannot be applied to all stores and it is recommended that customers read all the shipping information with its exceptions and requirements before placing an order.

Black Friday Office Furniture

5.    Black Friday is only a specific sale day

A few people still believe that Black Friday is a one-day event. But the past years have shown that it is much more than that. It is an event stretched on multiple weeks, starting from Thanksgiving and up to Cyber Monday in some cases.

Of course, the products on sale during this timeframe can be different. Their prices can be different as well. However, it is still debated if stretching the event is good for the retailer or for the consumer. Regardless of the beneficiaries, it is clear that having the ability to purchase products on sale for a long period of time is great, especially as it debuts the Christmas shopping period which allows many customers to purchase their gifts early. The length of the Black Friday sale is often decided by the stores themselves. Events such as early access can even limit the pre-sale to a specified number of customers. 

6.    Black Friday is for low-quality products

This is one of the biggest issues to address. The fact that people still associate the sale with products which are under-performing myth needs to be busted. There are various statistics and studies on this. But regardless of what is discussed online or offline, it has been shown that about a third of the products on sale are actually recommended as top choices by specialists. It is why Black Friday, like any other sale, offer a mix in value when it comes to products.

Both Black Friday and the following sale on Cyber Monday have a similar share of recommended products. It is why the myth of the unwanted product is not true. While it is true that some products which are discontinued by the manufacturing brand are offered at affordable prices, it is also true that they serve a purpose for a certain type of customers. For example, not all customers need to use flagship smartphones as many functions are available in more affordable alternatives.

10 Myths About Black Friday

7.    Items can be easily returned

Another big myth refers to return policies. While returning the products is possible, it is not often that this happens. It is why it’s worth considering that every store has a different return policy. On top of this, most major stores usually tighten these policies during the holiday season for various reasons.

It is why many shoppers who simply want to make a purchase just to return the product are not actually shopping on Black Friday. With so many changing policies, it’s no wonder that customers even ask about the return policy at the moment of purchase. For many people, this is the time when they need to make a decision. A few businesses might offer store credit while others can offer gift receipts. It’s worth noting that store credit can also be subject to a few policies, such as the limitations on which products can be purchased instead of the original product.

As this myth is busted, it becomes one of the crucial areas which are used to link Black Friday to a certain policy. But each store is different and with different return policies, it is unfair to judge the entire sale just with this one-sided view.

8.    Matching lowest price

Another top myth to assess is the expectation for a store to match the prices of the competition. This is actually a marketing technique used by a few stores and it is not specific to Black Friday. At the same time, it is also not realistic to ask a store to match the prices of the competition as each store has an individual percentage of profit and costs.

Since each store is different, the policies cannot be the same. Furthermore, it is also important to make the distinction that Black Friday is indeed a sale period which is highly customizable for each business. If a store is advertising price-matching offers, it does not have to be the same for all businesses. It is also why so many customers can be actually discouraging to find that their selected store doesn’t offer the lowest price on the market on Black Friday. The price of an item might be lower than the regular price, but this doesn’t mean that it is the lowest price on the market.

9.    Nobody skips

Judging by the number of sales from previous Black Friday sales, it would seem that everybody is buying something during this time. But this is very far from the truth and it represents one of the key areas which need to be addressed with the entire Black Friday culture.

Some people are not looking for the best deal. This is the shortest answer to the myth. But a detailed overview needs to look at why some of the products on sale are simply not attracting each customer. At the same time, the entire shopping experience is not something all customers are willing to go through. This proves that at the end of the day, Black Friday might have a mass appeal but it is up to the shopper to decide if, when and how a purchase or multiple purchases are going to be made.

10.    Black Friday is perfect for businesses

It is largely believed that Black Friday is an event held solely for the profits of businesses. While it is true that businesses don’t need to work on a loss, the truth is much more nuanced. The first thing to consider is operating costs. Opening stores early, closing late, dealing with all the stock requires investment. These investments are considerable for the big offline and online retailers.

An interesting report also shows that these long hours have a much more personal effect than just the financial side. It has been shown that the extra hours actually hurt to the morale of the personnel. The impact on the well-being of the staff working in stores has been declining over the Black Friday period.

Additionally, Black Friday also take a lot from other sales in the store, be it during this time of the year or during other sale periods. Other sale periods simply can’t match the popularity Black Friday has and this can hurt the overall sales stores expect for the entire duration of the year.

Conclusion

There are many other Black Friday myths to address. But it is important to understand that the sale period is very complex. Far from being an event dedicated to mass-market brands, it has taken over larger premium brands and stores as well. It entices these businesses to invest more in the range of products on offer and to attract customers with better deals. But the rising competition and with the advent of online shopping, it’s no wonder that most businesses need to work extra hard to maintain the same results as in previous years. Black Friday can be seen in many ways but seeing the sale from another angle is what really paints a realistic picture.

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