Black Friday, sales after Thanksgiving Day in the US, has also arrived in Europe. Last year MasterCard noticed an increase by 46 % in the number of transactions in Belgium compared to the previous year. Tomorrow Black Friday will take place again. According to MasterCard's analysis, consumers spent 23% more on last year’s Black Friday than on a regular Friday.
"The month of November has long been seen as a slack period for business, since it precedes Christmas shopping," said Alexandra Balikdjian, consumer psychologist at the ULB. “Black Friday represents an opportunity for consumers and for merchants to buy and sell.”
Still it is far from surpassing Christmas which generates 26% more transactions.
It is especially online business that benefits from this day of sales. "In Belgium, online shopping volumes increased by 107% on Black Friday in 2016 compared to 2015.
For Henri Dewaerheijd, country manager Belux MasterCard, "buying online has revolutionized the way consumers buy".
"It allows on the one hand meeting spontaneous desires in terms of purchases and on the other hand to offer a wide choice of products at bargain prices. For traders, the online actions of Black Friday offer the possibility to reduce the workload in the store and help to better analyze the purchasing behavior of their consumers."
The Brussels Times
