Millennials have been called of a lot things. If you believe the hype, the 18 to 32 year-old generation is lazy, narcissistic and heavily tattooed. Today, they are also being accused of murder.
According to Loren Bendele, president of deal search site Savings.com, millennials killed Black Friday.
“We’ve seen a common trend over the last few years of less emphasis on Black Friday,” says Bendele. From the inception of Cyber Monday in 2005 to the more recent increase in people shopping long before Thanksgiving, Black Friday no longer stands alone.
This year, Wal-Mart Stores WMT +0.1% started rolling out deals on November 1 with early bird web specials. Kmart stores opened at 6 a.m. Thursday morning. And for the first time ever Macy's M -0.52% flagship New York City store was open on Thanksgiving day to catch the crowds after its annual parade.
ComScore estimates desktop spending will be up 14% this year to $48.1 billion. While most estimates say overall spending will be down slightly.
Armed with smart phones, millennials are leading the charge, declaring independence from a retailer dictated shopping schedule and bringing their parents and grandparents along for the ride. “Millennials know that the power is in their hands,” Bendele says. “They do the research online. They do the research with their phones. And they find the deals wherever they exist.” But he doesn’t see millennials as murdered, just savvy shoppers.
According to Google's GOOG -0.2% 2013 Holiday Shopping Intentions Study 95% of millennials intend to use the internet as a shopping resource this holiday season, compared to 87% of the 35 and over set. Turning to mobile the evidence is even more striking. Just 67% of shoppers 35 and up plan to use their smartphones for holiday shopping, compared to 88% of millennials.
In a recent survey Valpak, owner of savings.com, found that 37% of millennials said they would forego Thanksgiving dessert in order to get the best deal, only 19% of those 55 and over said the same. Bendele notes that millennials are going where the savings are. Knowledge, however, is key. Bendele says millennials will go for the deals they know about so retailers can’t rest on their laurels. “The consumer has too much choice, too much information for [retailers] to force them to do something that is not in their best interest.”
Rest in peace Black Friday. The departed is survived by his children Cyber Monday, Black November and Gray Thanksgiving, as well as a distant cousin, Giving Tuesday. Some say, however, that news of Black Friday’s death has been greatly exaggerated.
