What: RSR questions the relevance of Black Friday in the digital age

Why it is important: Many IADS members keep on combining Black Friday (and other “institutional” sales dates) with their own labelled-sales campaign. Maybe it is time to review the efficiency of such institutional dates and trade them for more CSR clout?

RSR is arguing that Black Friday is a tradition from the past, which has been made outdated by customers’ behavior changes, the Covid-19 pandemic, and more importantly, the way retailers have acted on the US market, by starting deals and sales way ahead of the date of Black Friday itself. With the rise of online retail, there is no more point for customers to queue up outside early morning to snag deals that they could get from their home. In addition, Black Friday is now competing with retailers’ own labelled sales, Target’s Deal Days or Amazon’s Prime Days.

US retailer REI is going a step ahead and decides to give Black Friday as a day off to its employees, ‘forever’, instead of opening stores and trying to lure in customers. RSR remarks that this move is not so much about saying goodbye to a worn-out practice as it is another indicator that retailers are looking to be, or look, virtuous. In REI’s case, this means showing care to its employees, and RSR bets that this will strike a bell to Millenial and GenZ customers who are increasingly asking retailers to be good citizens.

Is Black Friday still relevant?