Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are gradually establishing their status as the end-of-year shopping days. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which are popular shopping days in the United States, have also changed the spending behavior of Finnish Christmas shoppers. These shopping days are shown as spikes in the sales figures, especially in the online sale. According to Posti’s survey, Black Friday is the best-known and most popular of these shopping days in Finland. The survey was conducted at the end of October, and more than one thousand Finns took part.
“The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for Posti. These new shopping days clearly show that buying Christmas presents starts earlier every year. Due to the exceptional COVID-19 period, Christmas shopping has been increasingly carried out online, and the Black Friday campaigns were especially popular last year. This is proven by the latest survey: Black Friday is familiar to us Finns – we shop a lot then, especially in online stores,” says Tommi Kässi, Vice President, Large Domestic Customers, Parcel and eCommerce at Posti.
Black Friday is the best known in Finland: nearly everyone knows it
Black Friday was invented in the United States and this year it will be celebrated on Friday, November 26. Globally, China-based Singles’ Day is the most popular, and it has become the biggest online shopping day in the world. Singles’ Day is celebrated on Thursday, November 11. Cyber Monday is an online store discount day invented in 2005, and celebrated this year on Monday, November 29.
In Finland, the most well-known seasonal shopping day is, by far, Black Friday: Of all the survey respondents, 94% said that they have shopped on that day or know the day by name. A total of 97% of women and 91% of men knew the Black Friday at least by name. Approximately half of the respondents (52%) knew Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day (46%) by name.
Black Friday draws Finns to stores: 30% of Finns said that they bought several things on Black Friday last year. This was felt also at Posti: a record-breaking number of parcels was delivered during Black Friday week; a total of 1.5 million parcels. Eight per cent of the respondents shopped on Cyber Monday and four per cent on Singles’ Day. Black Friday deals attracted especially shoppers aged 18–24 years (42%) and aged 35–44 years (42%). Cyber Monday was received more evenly among different age groups: the most frequent shoppers were found in age groups 18–24 (14%), 25–34 (13%) and 35–44 (16%). On Singles’ Day, only some purchases were made throughout different age groups.
Black Friday offers launch the Christmas shopping period
Seasonal shopping days raised interest in advance, and especially Black Friday increased purchase intentions: nearly half of the respondents (44%) said that they will familiarize themselves with the advance offers already before the shopping day. Of all the respondents, 12% and 7% said that they will familiarize themselves with the advance offers of Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day.
Purchase intentions were allocated similarly: 20% planned shopping for Black Friday, 5% for Cyber Monday and 2% for Singles’ Day. Black Friday offers draw the attention especially of shoppers aged 18–24, of whom 35% said that they will take up the shopping day offers. Of age group 55–64, 60% said that they will not buy anything on the seasonal shopping days. Offers were used to buy things for the shoppers themselves as well as for their close ones: approximately one quarter (26%) of the respondents started to buy Christmas presents on Black Friday, especially among age group 18–24 (38%) and women (29%).
The shopping days guide to online stores
The shopping days, particularly Black Friday, focus on online shopping. Nearly half of the respondents (45%) said that they will mainly make online store purchases on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day. The younger the respondent, the more likely it is that they will engage in the online shopping: 70% of 18–24 year-olds said that they will emphasize online shopping on the shopping days.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on online shopping was particularly visible among women and young people: approximately every fourth (24%) woman and every third (30%) young person aged 18–24 said that COVID-19 has permanently changed their online shopping. Nearly one quarter (23%) of the respondents aged 65 or more said that they do not shop online.
The survey commissioned by Posti was conducted by IROResearch Oy’s national consumer panel on October 19–27, 2021 with a total of 1,000 respondents.
