An international survey performed the week preceding Black Friday 2017
examined consumer preferences in anticipation of the end-of-year
shopping events. The survey, conducted among 3,400 participants from 8
developed countries, has revealed that Black Friday enjoys a
double-digit popularity percentage in 6 countries outside the United
States, while Cyber Monday tops out at only 4% outside of North America.
A survey conducted in November 2017 by
One Hour Translation,
the world’s largest online translation agency, presents a global
perspective on the preferences of online consumers concerning the
end-of-year shopping events. The survey reveals that the event most
consumers look forward to is Black Friday, which enjoys a double-digit
popularity percentage in 6 countries outside the United States. Cyber
Monday tops out at only 4% in the examined countries outside of North
America.
The online survey was conducted with Google Consumer Surveys among 3,400
participants from the following 8 developed countries: The United
States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and Japan. One
Hour Translation asked the participants: “Which online shopping event
have you been waiting for this year?” and allowed the respondents to
pick more than one answer. The survey analyzed the answers of 1,000
participants from the US, 600 from the UK and 300 in each of the
remaining participating countries.
In the United States, 14.5% of respondents said they were waiting for
Black Friday, which took place on November 24 this year, while 16% were
waiting for Cyber Monday (November 27). Black Friday is particularly
popular in Canada (about 26%), Spain (about 22%), France (about 21%),
the UK and Germany (about 19% each) and to a lesser extent in Australia
and Japan (about 10% in each country). On average among the 8 countries
sampled in the survey, 17% of respondents were looking forward to Black
Friday, compared to about 8% who were looking forward to Cyber Monday
and about 3% who were looking forward to the Singles Day event (the
Chinese holiday celebrating single people) - making Black Friday a
significant shopping event outside the US.
Cyber Monday, on the other hand, enjoyed a double-digit popularity
percentage only in the North American countries. 16% of respondents in
the United States said they were waiting for Cyber Monday, and 10% of
respondents in Canada, figures that were much higher compared to the
ones observed in the UK (about 4%), Australia, Germany, Spain, France
and Japan (about 3%).
The Chinese “Singles Day” shopping event, which takes place every year
on November 11, was highly anticipated among 7.5% of respondents in
Japan, as opposed to approximately 6% in Spain and France, 4% in Canada,
3% in Germany, 2% in Britain and Australia, and only 1.4% in the United
States.
Despite the fact that the survey was conducted online and was naturally
geared towards online consumers, about two thirds of respondents (68%)
on average among the eight countries said that they were not looking
forward to any online shopping events. About 4% of the 3,400 respondents
said they were looking forward to shopping events other than those
examined in the survey. The level of variability among the countries
when it came to these two figures was low.
"We already knew that Black Friday has become the top brand among the
end-of-year shopping events around the world, thanks to the survey we
conducted last year. This year, Black Friday is once again the most
popular shopping event among consumers. However, looking at the figures,
we can see a major difference in the levels of anticipation for the
Cyber Monday shopping event, which is popular in North America - the
United States and Canada – as opposed to the anticipation it enjoys in
the major economies outside of North America," said Ofer Shoshan,
co-founder and CEO of One Hour Translation. “Based on our extensive work
with thousands of e-commerce companies, we would encourage companies
outside of North America in this particular field to invest in
associating their activity and their brand with the Cyber Monday event."