Retailers create new 'Black Friday' event to jumpstart holiday shopping early

·Reporter

October 9, 2020 at 2:47 PM·3 min read

Only in 2020 does it make sense that there’s a new unofficial start to the holiday shopping season — as opposed to Black Friday — and it’s online and in October.

Riffing on China’s massively profitable annual Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza that comes every November 11 or 11/11, the 10.10 Shopping Festival aims to drum up online sales and excitement for the upcoming holiday shopping season during the pandemic and help shoppers avoid potential shipping delays.

Led by retail research and advisory firm Coresight Research and shopping rewards app Shopkick, the event will run from October 9 to 12, ending just before Amazon’s two-day Prime Day event kicks off.

“With our research showing most consumers anticipate doing their holiday shopping earlier this year, it’s the perfect time to launch,” said Deborah Weinswig, Coresight Research’s CEO and founder. “The extra time before December will help alleviate every retailer’s nightmare in a year involving skyrocketing online sales, order processing, fulfillment, and shipment delays.”

A man waits in line to check out at a Target store on Black Friday in Lanesborough, Massachusetts November 26, 2010. (REUTERS/Adam Hunger)

‘Elongate the season’

The event was created with the intent to “elongate the season” for retailers to take off some of the pressure placed on retailers and brands to work within the abbreviated constraints of the holiday season.

Weinswig even teased that a second shopping event might occur in January to give retailers an opportunity to sell excess product at a “margin that consumers were willing to pay or that retailers desired.”

To help struggling retailers survive 2020, retailers are tailoring their sales and discount plans to these unprecedented times.

“This idea that if we start earlier and end later that retailers won't necessarily need to participate in these heavy discounts of old,” Weinswig said.

People enter Macy's Herald Square for an early opening of the Black Friday sales in Manhattan, New York, November 24, 2016. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

Stretching out the season also benefits shoppers to “make sure that the product is delivered when the consumer wants to give it and to get it,” she said.

Every retail participant is also donating a percentage of the proceeds to an array of charities, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Breast Cancer Research Fund.

“As the economic toll from the global pandemic continues to weigh on consumers, we want to make it even more rewarding for them to accomplish their holiday shopping,” said Dave Fisch, general manager of Shopkick. “Whether in-store or online.”

Participating retailers and brands

Shoppers line up outside Best Buy before the store opens in Newport, New Jersey November 27, 2014. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

Auburn Jewelry
Bloom Beauty
Dermelect
Graphic Image
Guess
Hollywood Fashion Secrets
Jos A. Bank
K & G Fashion Stores
Kroger
Men's Wearhouse
Organic Candy Factory
Puravi
Shock
Shop Fashwire
Participating on Shopkick
First Leaf
Lenovo
Shoe Carnival
Ulta Beauty
Participating on Fashwire
Alivia
Amaya
Andrew & Cole
aSady
Beauhstyle
Celeste Sol
CoFi Leathers
D-Luca
DEZEN
Elizabeth Moore
Elizabeth Reid
FELLER
GiGi New York
Gold & Honey
Kaanas
Maneesha Ruia
Mantari
Milwaukee Boot
Modern Tie
Mona Assemi
Moral Code
MURMUR
Rafe New York
Rebecca Nadler
Redd Accessories
Rossario George
Royal Nomad
Rubin Singer
Shannon Koszyk
Suzanna Dai
Valeria Amaral

Stephanie is a reporter for Yahoo Money and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos.

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‘Elongate the season’

Participating retailers and brands

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