Dixons Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Black Friday

Are You Ready For Black Friday And Cyber Monday 2019?

The UK’s shopaholics will have their preparations well underway for the biggest shopping event of the year. Yes, the countdown is on for Currys Black Friday 2019, closely followed by Cyber Monday 2019. The days in between are also something of a mad trolley dash, and over recent years the event has grown into an extended shopping frenzy, with all the big names playing their part with a raft of sensational deals.

At Dixons Black Friday falls on November 24th 2019. It is always the day after Thanksgiving in the USA, which gives you a clue as to how the event originated. Black Friday is a term that started in Philadelphia, USA in the 1950s, but the true commercial carnage we witness today was triggered by online retail giants Amazon in 2010. They had the idea of offering a pre-Christmas bonanza of cheap offers and one-off, take-it-or-leave-it deals to take advantage of the large surge in retail trade in the lead up to the festive period.

How Black Friday has grown into a UK phenomenon

It is true that people’s buying habits change enormously as autumn turns into winter, and Dixons Black Friday has certainly taken this to an extreme. By 2013 big names such as Asda/Walmart had joined in the fun and the UK were well and truly in on the hunger for a bargain. We were now used to seeing a frenzied rush for exclusive items and doors opening to a flood of bargain hunters with only one thing on their mind, and nothing was going to stop them.

Today that image of customers fighting over the biggest bargains is something of a dated stereotype, as much of the Black Friday business is done online, a microcosm of how the retail industry has evolved generally. Cyber Monday was originally a follow-on from Black Friday that was exclusively online, but is now just an extension to the shopping obsession that exists as an excuse to bridge the whole weekend.

In truth, the idea that all these retail sales are concentrated on one day, or even one weekend, is an outdated concept, as the big retailers now release their deals at least one week before the big day, and many will retain those deals for days and weeks afterwards. Just like Halloween and Christmas Day itself, nothing is just about one day anymore.

Bargain deals all the way to Christmas

Plenty of big retailers such as Debenhams, Boots, House of Fraser and eBay now offer these deals all the way up to Christmas, and somehow the monster that Black Friday created has melted into a frenzy for Christmas shopping, with retailers offering Christmas deals that maybe a few years ago they wouldn’t have. For Dixons Cyber Monday is an excuse for techies and gamers to price up deals on the latest phones, laptops, tablets and consoles and grab a bargain that isn’t available at any other time of year.

Online spending on Black Friday in 2016 topped £1.2 billion, while the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw £5.8 billion spent in the UK, an increase of 15% on the previous year. Who knows what Currys Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 will bring? But as always; remember to set a budget, do your research and enjoy the thrill of picking up a bargain. Happy shopping.