In the United States, Thanksgivings encompasses more than turkey dinners and Macy’s parade, the ultimate anticipation to customers and the retail industry is Black Friday. Naturally, the retail industry experiences predictable peak sales near the holidays and in the United States, in particular, on Black Friday. Retailers anticipate this prime opportunity to “draw bargain-hungry shoppers” by lowering their prices and providing exclusive deals. Thus, for any retailer business, increasing consumer demand also equates to higher turnover.
On Black Friday, electronic retailers like Best Buy attempt to entice consumers from other competitors by providing exclusive “doorcrasher deals” with a catch – the advertised product is often limited to four to five units per store, creating a shortage. Interestingly, this shortage plays upon consumer behaviour and the fact that shoppers, like myself, are more likely to look for other deals in the store as a substitute because not buying any items seems as though we are “missing out” as the opportunity cost for waiting in line did not incur a benefit. Therefore, shoppers tend to leave the store with unnecessary products that they did not originally intend to buy because psychologically, consumers want a benefit in forms of any discounted products to justify their opportunity costs of waiting in line.
As a result, retailers intelligently utilize this concept of consumer behaviour to create a sense of anticipation by advertising with buzz words like “doorcrashers” or “limited time only” to entice customers who would eventually aid businesses remove slow-selling products and clean out “dead” inventory. Consequently, after Black Friday, both sides are happy as retailers have turned their slow inventory into liquidity while shoppers feel victorious at their discounted purchases.
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