Sask. shoppers plan to seek Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals
Black Friday is a busy day for Saskatchewan retailers – and that includes big-box chains and independent shops alike.
Julie Andreas, who co-owns Era Style Loft on 21st Street East in Saskatoon, said her store is offering discounts today. She believes Black Friday is growing in popularity in the province.
"Even six years ago, when we first opened, it wasn't as prevalent," Andreas said.
"I do know a couple of years in we were starting to see everybody kind of asking us when our Black Friday sale is, what we were going to do for Black Friday. We were kind of like, 'OK, we've got to get on board with this.'
"They'll come in and do a little bit of Christmas shopping, or even just shopping for themselves for the holidays at that time."
'Everybody's doing a sale'
During Black Friday, Andreas sees an increase in sales at her shop, which sells clothing, jewelry and home products. She said her store was "forced" into participating in the retail event because "everybody's doing a sale."
A new poll from Insightrix Research Inc. indicates that 54% of Saskatchewan residents are likely to do some of their holiday shopping between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Of the people polled, 73% expect to participate in today's Black Friday sales directly, while 64% plan to participate in online Cyber Monday sales this year.
Black Friday more popular than Cyber Monday
The survey results show Black Friday is more popular among Saskatchewan residents than Cyber Monday, said Duncan McGregor, marketing and communications coordinator with Insightrix.
The poll shows 61% of Saskatchewan people expecting to shop between today and Monday anticipate spending between $101 and $500 during Black Friday. In comparison, 48% expect to spend $101 and $500 during Cyber Monday.
Of those who will be shopping on Black Friday this year, the poll shows 50% expect to spend about the same amount as they did in 2016, while 19% plan to spend more and 7% plan to send less.
The results are very similar for Cyber Monday, with 50% expecting to spend about the same as in 2016, 18% expecting to spend more and 5% expecting to spend less.
McGregor said Insightrix plans to continue to track Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping in the province in the future.
"It seems to have penetrated so much into retail culture that we should be tracking it," he said.
For the 2017 poll, a total of 801 randomly selected SaskWatch Research panel members took part in the online research study from Nov. 6 through Nov. 9. According to Insightrix, quotas were set by age, gender and region to match the general population of the province.
Insightrix noted that since the research was conducted online, it is considered to be a non-probability proportion sample and therefore margins of errors are not applicable.
