This month, Black Friday takes place on Friday 29 November 2024, followed by Cyber Monday on 2 December 2024. In last month’s blog, we explored why taking advantage of the promotional period can be worthwhile as well as the use of text marketing to further boost engagement and sales.
In keeping with the Black Friday theme, we take a look at what furniture and bed retailers are doing for the event more specifically. This may help formulate your own offerings as there is still plenty of time to join the Black Friday buzz.
When searching through many websites using the terms ‘black Friday furniture deals’, ‘black Friday furniture sales’ and ‘black Friday mattress sale’, there were plenty of Black Friday landing pages that disclosed a sale was imminent ahead of the promotion. Some had call to action and subscription forms to not miss out on when the deals landed, which is a good approach of capturing potential customer data, while others declared just what products were already on other and the discount percentage.
The overall consensus, make sure your website has a Black Friday dedicated page that targets the keywords customers may search. For those websites already sharing a look at what offers customers can expect during the period, we shared the top 10 most ranking websites (remember, it’s just for those businesses that have presented offers and not including those saying a sale is coming). This should give you an idea on what potential promotion could work for your business.
Dante Furniture – the brand is offering discounts from 5% up to 50% off across selected products, with discounts clearly visible to users.
Cash and Carry Beds – offering discounts from 10% up to over 30% across three pages of products.
Furniture123 – its Black Friday sale is focussed on over 300 products ranging from smaller items to larger beds and sofas. The sale approach here is to show how much money has been taken off rather than a percentage.
Swyft - up to 50% off, including sofas and sofa beds, is the offer from Swyft.
Cousins Furniture – its Black Friday event features “at least 25% off everything” as well as “Special Limited Quantity Deals”.
Very - up to 30% off selected Home & Furniture, Home & Garden and Painted categories are all part of Very’s Black Friday Deals.
Land of Beds – up to 50% is being offered throughout the period, while also providing an informative insight into the event.
Furniture And Choice – from 25% to 30% off during its Black Friday sale, which seems to be focussed on sofas (up to 25% off) and dining (up to 30% off).
Choice Furniture Superstore – labelled as a ‘Mega Black Friday Sale’, the retailer has broken down each category with deals, displaying the price saving per product as well as an informative section on the promotion.
IKEA – a slightly different approach where IKEA is focusing on offering discounts across sustainability-led initiatives. It says: “Check out our extra 25% offer on Buyback, and explore up to 50% off on pre-loved IKEA furniture. Make this Black Friday greener.”
As you can see, offering a discount between 30% to 50% is a clear choice. Others differ from having selected products within the offer, whereas some are opening the discount across any product. What is does mean is, if your business has not come up with a Black Friday discount, you may run the risk of missing out on potential customers surfing the net and popping instore.
As a reminder, according to Mintel research, total sales during Black Friday 2023 reached an estimated £13.3bn, up 7.3% year-on-year. Around 84% of consumers agreed that a positive experience with a retailer during Black Friday would encourage them to shop there again, while 44% of consumers purchased a Black Friday deal in-store.
For furniture, November 2023 data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) saw furniture and lighting retail sales rise 10.6% to £1.46bn from £1.32bn in October. Floorcovering retail sales also rose month-on-month, up by 14.3% to £267.1m from £233.6m. At the time of that report, the ONS said that household goods store sales volumes rose by 3.5% in November 2023 following a fall of 2.6% in October 2023. The increase over the month was mainly because of strong growth in furniture and lighting stores as retailers reported discounts during the month – largely linked to Black Friday promotions.
Black Friday forecast
As for this year, it is anticipated that, according to Finder data, overall Black Friday spending in the UK is predicted to reach £3.8bn, up 27% from a planned spend of £3bn in 2023. According to Finder research, the average person plans to spend £122 during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in 2024. This is up from a planned spend of £113 in 2023.
Furthermore, Younger generations are far more likely to spend (and spend more) during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this year, while fewer members of the older generations are planning to make a purchase. 86% of generation Z (aged 18-27) intend to purchase something during the sales and, on average, they expect to spend £181 each. Similarly, 80% of millennials are planning to make a Black Friday purchase, with a planned average spend of £188 each.
On the other end of the spectrum, only a quarter (26%) of the silent generation is planning to make a purchase in the Black Friday sales, and the average spend is expected to be just £34. Less than a third of baby boomers (31%) are intending to buy something, with a planned average spend of £50 each.
A final thought…
Reverting back to last month’s blog to close this month out, text marketing through FurnitureTexts can be a great way a boosting Black Friday traffic and sales conversions. As consumers rely heavily on their smartphones for shopping, texting is a valuable channel. Use geo-targeting to display your Black Friday ads to mobile users within a certain radius of your store. This allows you to reach potential customers in your area with dedicated SMS personalised Black Friday offers.
Get ahead of the competition, prepare those Black Friday deals and get them in the faces, on the screens of your customers.