“Black November” replaces “Black Friday”





November 20, 2014: Forget the term “Black Friday” we’ve come to know so well. It’s lately taken on a grayer shade, causing a new term to emerge: “Grey Friday.” Last year, Black Friday sales were diluted as retailers began promoting deals & steals earlier in November. As early Black Friday deals run rampant throughout the month, the focus of shoppers and retailers is shifting away from one big shopping day.

Already this year, Macys confirmed to The Huffington Post that it will open stores to Black Friday shoppers at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, two hours earlier than it opened last year. Perhaps the best example of a retailer cashing in on an early start to holiday shopping is QVC. Its annual “Christmas in July” event attracts shoppers looking to get a jumpstart on holiday bargains.





It’s no wonder that the once key holiday shopping day is getting lost in the shuffle. This year Derek Tucker, the Senior eCommerce Leader at Corel along with our search team at Didit coined a new term now used frequently around the office: “Black November.” This term refers to the huge sales promoted everywhere that now stretch across the month rather than on a few select days. More than ever it’s critical to approach the holiday season with a holistic marketing strategy.

We found that users begin their holiday shopping much earlier than the traditional Thanksgiving weekend. We encourage clients to take advantage of the growing purchase intent by moving up their promotions and by planning their marketing strategy early in the year.

On the PPC side, all relevant offers should be promoted in ad copy to take advantage of increases in conversion rates.

Use your promotional calendar to strategically flight budgets around on-site promotions, email blasts and catalog drops. It’s important to include mobile while thinking about your overall strategy since 35% of all traffic in Q4 2013 was mobile. If you’re not present, competitors win ad position during heightened traffic months and you lose out on the sale- not to mention the potential for new customer acquisition.

Google Shopping will be an even more important piece of the digital landscape this year. Make sure your product feed is updated at least once a day. Otherwise, the engines could suspend your campaigns for things such as inconsistent pricing. As a retailer, you wouldn’t want, say, a sweater priced onsite for $14.99 to appear for $30.00 in the search results pages. The consistency of your messaging is critical. After all, it’s delivering the best consumer experience to your customer.

Social is a great way to stay part of the conversation. Our client SkyMall will be pushing their holiday promo Twitter party from early December to early November. The shift was important to stay top of mind with consumers.

It’s important to stay connected with your customer now more than ever and to keep messaging uniform across your digital channels. Since the marketplace is dynamic and searches are happening earlier and more often, retailers need to adapt to the changing trends.

The benefit of having an integrated marketing plan allows for flexibility to respond to changes in the marketplace.