The folks over at EBay, having nothing better to do, have given us a great minute by minute heatmap illustrating exactly what “Black Friday” meant to them. You can have a closer look at the result by going here but in a nutshell there’s nothing unexpected here. More population = more activity. Duh.
I am amused by Big Retail’s constant efforts to turn America into one 365 day a year shopping frenzy. The efforts of years gone by to try and push the folklore of “Cyber Monday” has been met by the reality that they don’t get another buying holiday for free here. Bottom line, if you sell on the web then “Black Friday” is as critical to you as it is for the bricks and mortar guys. If you don’t sell online, why on earth not? What we are seeing this year is that more and more people are trading in the experience of endless queues for shopping the day entirely from their own homes. More power to them.
Geof Birchall
