Following media articles over the last few days talking about the authenticity of Black Friday deals, here’s some live pricing data from this morning’s GfK Online Pricing Intelligence (OPI) which tells the story of what's actually happening today in three important categories – laptops, TVs and washing machines.
So, are there fewer real deals to be had this Black Friday?
Laptops
- For Black Friday 2018, one third (32.8%) of models have a price drop during November, a stark difference to November 2017 when 70% of models were price promoted
- However, only 2.7% of the models that have dropped in price are in fact at their lowest price for the Black Friday event when compared across the 2018 calendar year to date.
- The average price drop is also slightly less, at 8.9% compared to 9.5% last November.
- In total the average price of promoted models is 6.1% higher in 2018 than it was in 2017, which doesn’t mean individual models are necessarily more expensive, but the promotional mix is different.
Televisions
- In the television category, it’s a similar story to laptops, with less models promoted this year. Half of models (49.2%) are on sale in 2018 compared with two thirds (66.5%) in 2017.
- 4% of models are at their lowest price during Black Friday, this is well down on last year when it was just over 20%.
- The average price drop is almost the same, at 12.4% compared to 12.8% a year ago.
- However, the average price of promoted models is 11% lower than in November 2017.
Washing machines
- Moving to a different sector and looking at washing machines, a large number of models in the market (41.9%) have seen a price drop this November, but this compares with almost half (49.1%) in 2017.
- The average price drop is 11.3%, but this is also less than last year which stood at 13.7%.
- Similar to TV, the average price mix of promoted models is lower than last year.
- However, only 1% of models promoted are at their lowest annual price for the Black Friday event.
Michael McLaughlin, Head of Retail for the UK GfK says:
“There are strong and genuine deals to be had this Black Friday, but they are amongst a bewildering array of offers and a lot of ‘noise’ in the market. Our analysis of laptops, TVs and washing machines shows that there are less price drops this Black Friday than in 2017, and fewer items in these categories are at their lowest price today so far this year.
"Shoppers are embracing Black Friday, and we know they are becoming increasingly savvy, so they will be researching major purchases like these to get the best deals before they’re gone.”
GfK will release full point-of-sales data for trading this Black Friday on Friday 30th November, at which point we can report on the market performance following what is shaping up to be a very busy weeks trading.
