Dutch consumers to celebrate Black Friday online

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Nov 20, 2018

While the American shopping event Black Friday is notorious around the globe for its long queues and hectic shopping sprees, Dutch consumers are embracing the event mostly as an online spending splurge.

About 71% of Dutch consumers who are planning to shop during Black Friday and Cyber Monday will mostly do so online. Only 15% of Dutch consumers plan to visit a physical store during the popular shopping days, according to an international survey on purchase intentions during Black Friday and Cyber Monday by management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman.

For Dutch consumers, apparel is the most wanted category, followed by electronics and sports equipment. But Dutch consumers are only seeking out high discounts: 8 out of 10 people only decide to purchase an item if it has a 30% discount or more. Those who plan to shop during Black Friday and Cyber Monday will spend about €286 on average, while Britons spend about €370 and Italians €218 during the shopping events, the report says.

Contrary to the increasing amount of Dutch consumers who are embracing Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Dutch retailers, especially small business owners, are skeptic about participating in the shopping events. The reason for this is the competition with larger chains, which are offering high discounts.

Coen de Vuijst, partner at Oliver Wyman, said: “Small business owners will have a risk of losing money, if they don’t manage [Black Friday and Cyber Monday] well. Consumers will be conditioned and will anticipate the high discounts in their purchasing behavior. Among small business owners, the fear of losing market share leads to a buoyant effect of discounts. This could lead to a negative spiral.”

De Vuijst further added that small business owners need to consider market share and profitability on the long run and develop an activation mechanism that provides long-term benefits for them. An example of this is the “buy one - get one later” formula that will ensure that consumers will return rather than attracting one-time ‘bargain hunters’.

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday survey by Oliver Wyman was conducted in the Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the US by a total of more than 9,000 respondents.