Here when Black Friday and Cyber Monday are being held this year. (Image Source: Pixabay) Black Friday is an annual shopping event that begins the Friday after Thanksgiving and often lasts until the Monday after, known as Cyber Monday. The days mark the beginning of the holiday shopping season that sees through the end of the year. Ahead of Black Friday 2021, here’s everything you need to know about the event.
When is Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021?
Black Friday this year is on November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, on November 25. Hence, Cyber Monday is set to be on November 29 this year.
Why is it called Black Friday?
Black Friday began getting its name in the US back in the 1950s-60s when the Philadelphia police would reportedly use the term “Black Friday” to refer to the day between Thanksgiving and the Army-Navy game. This Friday happened to be a day when a large number of people would shop in the city and the cops were left working long hours to handle the crowds and the traffic that followed.
Through the 1980s the day grew to become one of the most successful days of the year for merchants, who would often refer to the day as Black Friday to denote good profits, as they ended up using only black ink (used to show profit) and less red ink (used to show loss).
Today, the term takes a more retail context and marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season that begins the day after Thanksgiving. While Black Friday shopping once referred to camping outside stores to grab the best deals when stores would open on Friday, today the shopping happens both offline in malls and stores as well as online on e-commerce portals like Amazon.
What is Cyber Monday?
In the early 2000s, retailers began noticing a new shopping pattern among buyers who were not able to shop during the Black Friday weekend. These buyers would often shop for bargain deals online on the Monday that followed, usually from home or work.
This day quickly came to be known as Cyber Monday, and by 2014 Cyber Monday was the busiest day of the year with online desktop sales exceeding $2 billion dollars, becoming the heaviest spending day in US history.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday in India
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not big terms in the Indian shopping calendar, as Indians often shop big during its own major festivals, usually between Dussehra and Diwali. However, the terms keep becoming more popular each year with major e-Commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart trying to bring their own iterations of the Black Friday shopping season in India during the same days.
With momentum in its favour, Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021 is expected to be bigger than before as the country continues to slowly come out of the effects of the pandemic. Electronics , furniture, apparel and footwear are expected to be some of the major categories that could see rising sales between November 26 and 29.
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