Black Friday: Another Part of The Holiday

Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com

Is your Thanksgiving celebration complete without Black Friday shopping? According to The George Washington University Marketing professor, Lynda Maddox, it might just not be.

“Black Friday has extended from just being a retail holiday to being part of the holiday experience,” Maddox said.

And even those who don’t enjoy heading to the mall may fear that if they don’t buy something online on Friday, they will be missing out.

“The online experience allows people who might not want to wait in the lines, might not want to go out, or might not think it’s such an experience, to almost feel like the are missing out on something if they don’t participate in some way, shape or form,” Maddox said.

As online shopping is becoming more popular on Black Friday, Maddox said that in the future, retailers will be using the Internet to target specific products at individual shoppers.

“You’ll receive offers that will become ever more attractive to you as the online media allows marketers to tailor to to each individual consumers as oppose to doing the approach where they kind of aim at everybody and hope that some people will buy,” Maddox said.

While many stores consider Black Friday their most lucrative day of the year, some retailers are staying closed, citing the importance of being with family on this holiday.

Although some stores may actually want to allow their staff to spend Thanksgiving at home, the idea of staying closed on Black Friday is also a way to gain loyal customers, Maddox said.

“Millennial are very interested in marketers that do good and have a cause, so it becomes part of this social marketing that is very popular,” Maddox said.

If you are shopping, however, Maddox said that this year’s Black Friday will be popular because of the hope brought on by the recent election.

“With the election of the new president there is always optimism about the economy- first there was pessimism but now it seems to have shifted,” Maddox said.