Black Friday has a bad reputation. It’s a day of ludicrous sales, yes, but as its sinister name implies, it’s also been a day of chaos, as crowds stormed the gates of stores, surging into aisles, legions of hands outstretched to grab big-ticket items before someone else does. The times they are changing, however; even though Black Friday still attracts swarms of shoppers to stores, more and more people are doing their shopping online. Liz Dunn, CEO of retail analytics platform Pro4Ma, appeared on Digital Trends Live to talk with host Greg Nibler about the trends she saw over Black Friday weekend this year, and what that means for retailers moving forward.
Explaining Pro4Ma’s business model, Dunn says: “What we’re trying to do is really tie together all of the data that’s out there related to retailers and map the ecosystem, as it were. So we’re really trying to help retailers understand the data that’s impacting their performance, and help investors understand how to target retailers that may be on an upswing.”
“Traffic is down in physical stores,” Dunn says of the predominant trend in retail. “It’s been down for the last six years. It was down again for Black Friday. But what we saw for the Black Friday weekend online is that sales were up quite strongly, and that continued through Cyber Monday.”
“There’s a little bit of a shift, though,” she continues, “where the sales are more spread out than they used to be, and that’s because we all have a phone in our pocket and we start shopping as soon as we put down our forks.”
According to Dunn, consumers should cast a wide net when searching for deals. There are a lot of big retailers all trying to capture consumer dollars, and although Amazon may seem like an obvious place to shop, competitors like Walmart and Target can often offer better deals.
Digital Trends Live airs at 9 a.m. PT from Monday through Friday, with highlights available on demand after the stream ends. For more information, check out the Digital Trends Live homepage, and be sure to watch live for the chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card, among other prizes.
