27
de Novembre
de
2015
Act.
27
de Novembre
de
2015
Black Friday returns to Catalonia this year on November 27 and 28 to revolutionise local retail and boost sales through exclusive discounts. It is a formula that first came to the Catalan capital last year and in 2015 involves 2,000 retail outlets, compared with the 400 from last year, in all sectors: fashion, hostelry, chemists, hairdressers, gyms and hotels. It is the second time that this event, promoted by the media agency Cromek System, is held in Barcelona, although in the United States the last Friday of November has been the busiest day of the year for retail sales since 2005.
This year, Black Friday Barcelona involves 25 organisations, such as Pimec, the Confederació de Comerç de Catalunya (CCC), the Agrupació de Botiguers i Comerciants de Catalunya, Comertia, Barcelona Oberta, the Gremi de Restauració de Barcelona and the Gremi d'Hotels, among others.
Figures from red to black
Barcelona's retailers hope that Black Friday will stimulate "an increase in sales of more than 30% compared with a normal day," according to Carmen San Gil, head of Cromek System. This year, the special day from the US also signals the start of the Christmas campaign with the turning on of the Christmas lights. "The Confederació could not afford to be left out, which is why we are part of it," says Miguel Ángel Fraile, secretary general of the Confederació Catalana de Comerç. According to Fraile, the celebration "is becoming established: it is like the sales, in the 50s no one did it and now we cannot imagine a January without it," although last year the retailers' organisation did not take part, considering it to be too new.
The Confederació and Pimec Comerç agree that this event signals the start of the Christmas shopping campaign and above all it has to be seen as a powerful promotion campaign: "I do not think that starting the campaign with discounts reduces profit margins, but it is more of a way of promoting local retail products, not only for the large shopping centres," says Fraile. What's more, the Confederació insists that "large shopping centres are not in local neighbourhoods, where the commercial activity is strongest."
"It has become a key day of commercial interest that goes beyond just discounts," says Enric Calvo, secretary general de Pimec Comerç. For Calvo now "is the moment to grab the customer's attention, beyond large-scale purchases, small and medium-sized retailers have a chance of getting noticed." For retail organisations, this celebration already "means more in terms of promotion than profits."
This view is shared by the professor of Direcció de Màrqueting in Esade, Francesc Carreras, who defends Black Friday "as another excuse to begin the Christmas shopping campaign. It is an artificial phenomenon that we have copied, because here there is no Thanksgiving Day, but we take advantage of any excuse for promotion." "Here there is no theatricality in shops, with long queues and midnight openings," says the Esade professor when talking about the differences in Black Friday here compared with the original. For him, this experience is more similar to our traditional sales periods, "but in the United States they prefer to offer their discounts before instead of after."
Record figures
The other major day of promotions is Cyber Monday. To give an idea of what this day means, the director general of Amazon in Spain, François Nuyts, insists that on this date the highest volume of online orders in the whole year takes place.
A study by the Associació Espanyola de l'Economia Digital (Adigital) shows how during these days sales reach 1.1 billion euros in Spain, 10.6% more than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2014. According to Adigital, these dates make up 6.4% of all of the year's online sales together. Far from the 1.65% in 2012 or the 2.35% in 2013.
"During the whole week we will have more than 3,500 offers, seven times more than last year and the discounts will be 50%," says AdamSedó, spokesman for Amazon in Spain, who adds that for the first time the distribution giant will have discounts on beauty and food products, "even on Iberian cured ham." Last year, Amazon sales on Black Friday went up four times compared with a normal Friday. The company hopes to surpass the record so far, when on December 16 182,000 units were sold in 24 hours. That is 126 articles per minute.
"Online sales can, in Spain's case, even surpass physical purchases," says the Esade professor. Carreras goes further and states that it is nevertheless a phenomenon that is outdated. It began "when the internet was only accessed from desktop computers. On getting to work on the Monday after Black Friday people could get products that they had been unable to get the Friday before." "It was easy to still find star products in stock," he says while recognising that today purchases can be made online from a mobile and at any time over the weekend. Thus, many large companies have chosen to extend, like Amazon, the discounts during the whole week.
Made for large corporations
"Faced with these figures, small and medium-sized reatilers cannot compete, and the ones who benefit most from this day are the large distributors, because they are well-known," says MàriusRossell, CEO of Trilogi, a company devoted to the creation of e-commerce portals.
As the celebration is imported from the United States, it is made "for the large corporations. In the US, it is not so important for small retailers," says Rossell. That is why, while the large distributors take the largest slice of the cake, small retailers resign themselves to using the day for promotion. They can do nothing else. In fact, none of the retailers' associations know how many of their members have a website.
"Small online retailers do not see any rise in sales on this Monday, to compete with large companies, small brands can only try promoting their products from their niche and try to take advantage of the wave, nothing else," Rossell concludes.
This year, Black Friday Barcelona involves 25 organisations, such as Pimec, the Confederació de Comerç de Catalunya (CCC), the Agrupació de Botiguers i Comerciants de Catalunya, Comertia, Barcelona Oberta, the Gremi de Restauració de Barcelona and the Gremi d'Hotels, among others.
Figures from red to black
Barcelona's retailers hope that Black Friday will stimulate "an increase in sales of more than 30% compared with a normal day," according to Carmen San Gil, head of Cromek System. This year, the special day from the US also signals the start of the Christmas campaign with the turning on of the Christmas lights. "The Confederació could not afford to be left out, which is why we are part of it," says Miguel Ángel Fraile, secretary general of the Confederació Catalana de Comerç. According to Fraile, the celebration "is becoming established: it is like the sales, in the 50s no one did it and now we cannot imagine a January without it," although last year the retailers' organisation did not take part, considering it to be too new.
The Confederació and Pimec Comerç agree that this event signals the start of the Christmas shopping campaign and above all it has to be seen as a powerful promotion campaign: "I do not think that starting the campaign with discounts reduces profit margins, but it is more of a way of promoting local retail products, not only for the large shopping centres," says Fraile. What's more, the Confederació insists that "large shopping centres are not in local neighbourhoods, where the commercial activity is strongest."
"It has become a key day of commercial interest that goes beyond just discounts," says Enric Calvo, secretary general de Pimec Comerç. For Calvo now "is the moment to grab the customer's attention, beyond large-scale purchases, small and medium-sized retailers have a chance of getting noticed." For retail organisations, this celebration already "means more in terms of promotion than profits."
This view is shared by the professor of Direcció de Màrqueting in Esade, Francesc Carreras, who defends Black Friday "as another excuse to begin the Christmas shopping campaign. It is an artificial phenomenon that we have copied, because here there is no Thanksgiving Day, but we take advantage of any excuse for promotion." "Here there is no theatricality in shops, with long queues and midnight openings," says the Esade professor when talking about the differences in Black Friday here compared with the original. For him, this experience is more similar to our traditional sales periods, "but in the United States they prefer to offer their discounts before instead of after."
Record figures
The other major day of promotions is Cyber Monday. To give an idea of what this day means, the director general of Amazon in Spain, François Nuyts, insists that on this date the highest volume of online orders in the whole year takes place.
A study by the Associació Espanyola de l'Economia Digital (Adigital) shows how during these days sales reach 1.1 billion euros in Spain, 10.6% more than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2014. According to Adigital, these dates make up 6.4% of all of the year's online sales together. Far from the 1.65% in 2012 or the 2.35% in 2013.
"During the whole week we will have more than 3,500 offers, seven times more than last year and the discounts will be 50%," says AdamSedó, spokesman for Amazon in Spain, who adds that for the first time the distribution giant will have discounts on beauty and food products, "even on Iberian cured ham." Last year, Amazon sales on Black Friday went up four times compared with a normal Friday. The company hopes to surpass the record so far, when on December 16 182,000 units were sold in 24 hours. That is 126 articles per minute.
"Online sales can, in Spain's case, even surpass physical purchases," says the Esade professor. Carreras goes further and states that it is nevertheless a phenomenon that is outdated. It began "when the internet was only accessed from desktop computers. On getting to work on the Monday after Black Friday people could get products that they had been unable to get the Friday before." "It was easy to still find star products in stock," he says while recognising that today purchases can be made online from a mobile and at any time over the weekend. Thus, many large companies have chosen to extend, like Amazon, the discounts during the whole week.
Made for large corporations
"Faced with these figures, small and medium-sized reatilers cannot compete, and the ones who benefit most from this day are the large distributors, because they are well-known," says MàriusRossell, CEO of Trilogi, a company devoted to the creation of e-commerce portals.
As the celebration is imported from the United States, it is made "for the large corporations. In the US, it is not so important for small retailers," says Rossell. That is why, while the large distributors take the largest slice of the cake, small retailers resign themselves to using the day for promotion. They can do nothing else. In fact, none of the retailers' associations know how many of their members have a website.
"Small online retailers do not see any rise in sales on this Monday, to compete with large companies, small brands can only try promoting their products from their niche and try to take advantage of the wave, nothing else," Rossell concludes.