Black Friday Analysis: Why Retailers Should Pay Attention

Shopping in-store has steadily become less popular since online shopping experiences have improved and offered more convenience for consumers. As SafeGraph explored last year  the shift to eCommerce was expedited between 2019 and 2020 due to COVID-19. This shift was highlighted when the biggest retail day of the year  Black Friday  broke the record for most online sales in its history.

Leading into this year’s Black Friday, there was much debate as to whether the move to online shopping would show the same growth or if rates would slow. Influences such as supply chain issues and a yearning to revert back to pre-pandemic traditions caused some to believe rates would slow. But many people have predicted levels would stay the same, if not increase  due to the convenience of shopping online and ongoing concerns over COVID-19. In a poll amongst our employees, the vast majority expected growth rates for eCommerce to slow in 2021. So, we decided to use SafeGraph’s data, visualized in CARTO’s platform, to confirm, or deny, our assumptions.

In this blog (originally published on Safegraph’s website), we explore Black Friday trends in 2021 in four US cities as compared to 2019 and 2020. To examine trends in large and midsize cities, we chose Chicago, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Buffalo. Using hot spot analysis and SafeGraph foot traffic data, we analyze different categories and brands of points of interest (POI), such as Walmart, and explain why this analysis is an important tool for retailers as they evaluate holiday sales performance.