The motives, characteristics and experiences of US Black Friday shoppers

Despite the popularity of Black Friday (BF) shopping, there is surprisingly little research on shoppers' Black Friday motivations, characteristics, experiences and behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine a broad range of Black Friday shopping behaviors and experiences, as well as the relationships between Black Friday shoppers' motivations and experiences. In this study, we collected data from consumers who did and did not participate in BF shopping during the most recent holiday season. As expected, compared to non-shoppers, Black Friday shoppers reported higher levels of hedonic shopping motivations. In particular, Black Friday shoppers appear to be especially attracted to experiences of pleasurable shopping emotions and the BF holiday may be particularly good at stimulating and satisfying those emotions. In addition, Black Friday shoppers with more positive experiences reported more extensive shopping behaviors and reported shopping for products that were similar to those products that they shop for on a regular monthly basis. Although the participants were primarily college-aged, examining these measures with a greater age range would also be worthwhile. We discuss the implications of our results for online shopping, other seasonal shopping events and cross-cultural differences. Implications for retailer marketing strategies are also discussed.