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Hitwise Intelligence - Bill Tancer - North America

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Black Friday Comes Earlier

October 22, 2007

Earlier this month I conducted a Hitwise client webinar with Anita Gandhi, our Client Intelligence Director. The topic of discussion was the growing popularity of Black Friday searches on the net. Anita pointed out during the presentation that the popularity of Black Friday ad sites (and the growing coverage in the media) has repurposed a term-of-art in the retail trade to a consumer search phrase.

This chart shows the growth in "Black Friday" searches in 2005 vs. 2006.

black friday 1 small.png

Another remarkable trend is how interest in Black Friday has been creeping earlier in the calendar now showing up as early as July, ramping by mid-September, show the growing consumer demand for information on sales the day after Thanksgiving.

black friday 2 small.png

Wal-Mart is bringing increasing interest to the sales date with a letter to Black Friday ad sites last week warning them not to post any leaked Black Friday sale material as their ads are copyrighted material. Ironically, the one brand associated with Black Friday Ads (based on search containing the term "black friday" for the four weeks ending 10/20/07) is Wal-Mart, the only brand that shows up in the top 20 terms. It shows up in position #10 "Walmart Black Friday ads," #13 "Walmart Black Friday," and #20 "Walmart Black Friday ad."

Posted by Bill Tancer at 02:34 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Shopping and Classifieds