Each year the hysteria seems to increase with these key internet shopping days, and like it or loathe it, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now established here in the UK. If you are an online retailer, can you afford to miss out, and which one do you target?
Key Dates for 2015
Black Friday this year is on Friday 27 November.
Cyber Monday is on Monday 30 November.
History of Black Friday
This originally started out as an American fad, the Friday following Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November). Thanksgiving is basically the US version of our Harvest festival, but where everyone has a day off and has a big turkey dinner.
According to Wikipedia, the term Black Friday came from the 1960's when retailers traditionally broke profit and "went in to the black".
The day after thanksgiving has apparently always been busy, as Thanksgiving is a (rare) public holiday. In recent years stores have opened earlier and stayed open later to capture the next day sales, and the online age has fostered and turned Black Friday into a shopping frenzy, mainly fuelled by the media.
As we have a global economy, Black Friday is turning into a world wide epidemic, and has grown and grown in popularity in the UK, to the point that it is reaching hysteria levels for bargain hunters,
History of Cyber Monday
In contrast, Cyber Monday is just simply a clever marketing stunt created by online retailers. It seems it came about by looking at buying patterns, and as people went back to work and accessed their much better internet connections, they decided to buy lots of stuff online. So Cyber Monday was born.
Marketing spin says it is aimed at smaller retailers who don't have the marketing clout of the big boys to capitalise on Black Friday. Again due to global economics, Cyber Monday is now an important day in the UK retailers calendar.
Should I discount and join in?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are nothing but good news for consumers. That said, you have to be streetwise as old lines and stock are offloaded at what seems to be bargain prices, which would have been discounted anyway.
There is an argument that Black Friday hurts retailers as people hold off buying products, expecting them to be heavily discounted during these two manic shopping days, which then screws up retailers sales figures. There is already a backlash by some major stores refusing to join in, so maybe the bubble is finally bursting? No doubt there will be plenty of post Black Friday analysis in the media.
Should you join in is down to you. There is a lot of hype to piggy back off, so if you have stock you want to dump, it's a good time to do it 
Obviously it's not going to applicable to lots of business types, can't see a rush to buy discounted advertising 
But if you are an eCommerce shop and/or bricks and mortar, then there is a huge opportunity to be had if you can sell volume and have the margins to play with.
Sources:
Wikipedia Black Friday and Cyber Monday
So will anyone be taking commercial advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year? Has anyone had a success in the past? Or maybe horror stories to beware of?
