A Global Black Friday?

What spreads faster than office gossip? A good deal! And the word is out about Black Friday. The novelty of Black Friday seems to have jumped borders, leapt across oceans and taken root outside of the U.S.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., has enjoyed a notable boost in awareness and importance for U.S. consumers and retailers alike. For consumers Black Friday has become associated with doorbuster deals and a day of pavement pounding, route planning, all-out shopping strategery. In more recent years the traditional Black Friday deals have extended to the internet leading to a blossoming of online purchasing on Black Friday.

This year Black Friday has gone global. After all, who wouldn’t want a good deal?

“Black Friday” was the top rising search term in Brazil, Japan and Israel and the second fastest rising in France and Sweden within the “Shopping” category over the last 7 days (week ending Sunday, Nov 29. Google Insights for Search. Rising searches are searches that have experienced significant growth in a given time period, with respect to the preceding time period ) (Interesting, but not surprising, to note the searches were performed in English as opposed to the local language).

What does this mean for retailers in the U.S.? Could this be an opportunity for those who ship internationally, distribute through local retailers internationally and/or have store locations abroad?

Apple seems to think so. This year Apple promoted their one-day-sale in several countries including Brazil and Sweden. (see Gizmodo report for more examples)



…did Apple help to drive those international searches on the term "Black Friday" or did Apple offer the promotion in response to pre-existing interest in Black Friday internationally? Like the 'chicken or the egg' we may never know, but we can say with certainty that the interest is there and the opportunity is ripe.

Posted by Emma Weisberg, Google Retail Team