German retailers and Black Friday. A mismatch?

In Germany, Black Friday has become increasingly popular over the years. Numerous online and brick-and-mortar retailers throw around discounts. Many retailers, though, prefer there was no Black Friday at all. Despite their wish, they are still captured by the attention this shopping day keeps attracting.

In the United States of America, Black Friday is the most popular shopping day for years. Traditionally, in Europe, this day took place just before Christmas. However, ever since the shopping festival got overseas and conquered the European online and offline markets, this Friday after Thanksgiving is also very popular amongst consumers in Europe.

60% of German retailers don’t want Black Friday

This is also the case in the German market. Many retailers sell their products with special discounts, but a new study shows that a lot of German retailers actually could do without the day full of discounts. Roman Kmenta surveyed 674 retailers and consumers. He concludes that 60% of retailers prefer it if Black Friday did not exist. Amongst consumers, it is 44% who says they would do well without the recently introduced shopping event.

About 42% of the surveyed retailers predict that the shopping festival after Thanksgiving will damage their Christmas business. Only 16% of the surveyed respondents believe Christmas sales will grow stronger because of Black Friday. Overall 43% states that it has a negative impact on profit overall.

Both retailers and consumers are still in doubt about the effectivity of the recently introduced shopping festival. The answers on the question "Do you think that offers or much lower prices, such as those that are customary for Black Friday, generally rather benefit or hurt trade?" are very divided. Among consumers, 41% think it could hurt the total industry. 48% of retailers provided this answer.