Black Friday has evolved into a week-long gala. Instead of shoppers being compelled to rush to Walmart stores at the same time the turkey is being served up on Thanksgiving Day just to snatch a good deal or two, the titanic retailer is drawing out the shopping bonanza into a week-long celebration to what it says will accommodate and adapt to its shoppers changing tastes and schedules.
"It used to be called Black Friday, then it became Thursday, now it's a week long," Walmart U.S. chief merchant Duncan Mac Naughton said via the Wall Street Journal. "Maybe we should just call it November."
Indeed, "Black Friday has become Black Friday Week." Walmart is drifting away from the rather muddled and congested one-day occasion, giving the store and its customers a chance to breathe, literally. Instead of squeezing all its promotions and special deals on TVs, games, gadgets, toys and apparel into the single and rather limited Black Friday, Walmart chose to feature unique offers each day of its extended shopping celebration.
"Because Black Friday has become the whole week, we want to make sure we have compelling offers across all days," Mr. Mac Naughton said.
At midnight on Thanksgiving, Walmart will put up exclusive online deals with guaranteed free shipping. This is a stunt Wall Street Journal believes will dramatically help in boosting sales, as many customers resort to online shopping, which is much painless than mobbing with hordes of shoppers. By 6 p.m., doorbuster deals will be fired up. Fortune mentioned that nine irresistible items will be the pin-up of this specific segment of the day. After that, shoppers can haggle for electronics by 8 p.m. On Nov. 28 at exactly 6 a.m. buyers can storm into Walmart outlets for more good buys to grab. Promotions will extend up to Dec. 1, to give way to Cyber Monday.
According to Fortune, Walmart is in the middle of a sales nose-dive this year and that it has even suffered a decrease in sales during last year's holiday. To redeem its sales growth and finish strong, it has to cook up bigger deals and promotions far better than its last year's offers to lure swarms of buyers and cash in more. In addition, Bloomberg pointed out that the holiday shopping season is all too crucial, with 19 percent of annual revenue coming from November and December sales alone. Taking this into account, Walmart's protraction of the one-day juncture makes sense.
