Although it may seem to be a day of recent origin, nothing could be further from the truth. We have to go back to the mid-twentieth century to find the emergence of Black Friday, although there are theories (not proven) that date its origin back to the nineteenth century.
A day that has become a symbol of consumerism and that, although it was born in the United States of America, is now widespread all over the planet, on a day when shopping centres collapse, establishments fill up and websites break sales records.
When asked the question: When is Black Friday celebrated, the answer is the day after the fourth Thursday in November. When does Black Friday fall in 2024? On 29 November.
Origin of Black Friday: the 1950s in Philadelphia
As we have just mentioned, there are previous theories related to slavery or Wall Street, but the one that generates the greatest consensus as the original moment of Black Friday takes us to the American city of Philadelphia in the mid-1950s.
Pennsylvania’s most populous city hosted an annual college football game between the Navy and Army teams (known as Navy vs Army), a sporting event held annually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Although it is familiar to almost everyone, it is a family day that is recognisable around the world thanks to the huge American cultural influence and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November with long-standing traditions such as turkey dinner.
But back to Black Friday and its beginnings, the sporting fixture two days after Thanksgiving meant that on that Friday Philadelphia’s commerce was overwhelmed between the start of the locals’ Christmas shopping and the flood of visitors coming to the sporting evening.
During those years, the chaos and crowds in the city of Benjamin Franklin – by the way, one of the 18th century ideologues of the time change – marked local commerce on the day after Thanksgiving.
The 1960s and 1970s: the term Black Friday became established
However, it was not until January 1966 that a specific definition of Black Friday appeared in the long-running philatelic magazine The American philatelist (founded in 1887), where local stamp dealer Martin L. Apfelbaum referred to the fact that this was the name used by the Philadelphia police department -since approximately 1961- to refer to the crowded day that took place between Thanksgiving and the aforementioned American football game.
But if there was a moment when the term began to become popular, it was when it appeared in the New York Times in 1975:
As a result of the success of the day in terms of consumer spending, some people also link the name to the colour black because thanks to the profits made on that day, shop accounts went from being in red to the colour that has popularised the day.
Whether or not there is any truth in this statement, what is undeniable is that we are facing a day that is recognised all over the world on which consumption soars.
For the consolidation of this day, which has already replaced the start of the sales for many people and which is considered the starting signal for the Christmas campaign, the evolution and popularisation of the Internet, social networks and apps has also helped.
Black Friday in Spain
Although, as we have seen, the origin of Black Friday is American, in recent decades the expansion of this day has exploded all over the world, Spain being no exception.
In this country, the first celebration as such of ‘Black Friday’ took place in 2010, when Apple imported this tradition for the marketing of its products, although it became popular through its use by the MediaMarkt household appliance chain in 2012 and the addition of large supermarkets and chains the following year.
After Black Friday… comes Cyber Monday
Decades after the birth of ‘Black Friday’ came Cyber Monday, a day also dedicated to promoting pre-Christmas sales, but exclusively linked to the digital world.
But who first used the term Cyber Monday?
The American Retail Federation in 2005 in an article in its Shop.org magazine entitled ‘Cyber Monday’ Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year.
In the same year, an article in the New York Times reported that Cyber Monday had recorded the highest number of online sales of the season.
A day that is the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Or in other words: the first Monday after Black Friday.
Therefore, in 2024 Cyber Monday will be on 2 December.
Black Friday 2023 in data
To get an idea of the magnitude of Black Friday, we can look at some data from its last edition.
According to a study by Nielsen IQ, around ‘Black Friday’ in 2023 (the 47th week of the year, in which this day is located) the global turnover was 6.3 billion euros, which represents a decrease of 3% compared to the same week in 2022.
To put this in context with respect to other weeks of the year, it represents an increase of 51% compared to the previous week and an increase of 104% compared to the annual weekly average.
If we break it down by country, we find that Spain is the country with the highest percentage increase from the previous week to week 47, specifically 99%. The biggest growth from Black Friday week to Black Friday week was in Turkey with 17%.
What were the best-selling products of 2023?
The top three most important products by sales were virtual reality and augmented reality glasses (up 48% in demand), electric deep fryers (up 32% in sales) and Bluetooth mini speakers (up 21%).
With regard to customer behaviour, the report provides some interesting data, such as the fact that 97% of customers used some kind of savings strategy, 38% postponed some kind of purchase until it was on promotion and 36% switched from purchasing products from big name brands to more eco-friendly ones.
