黑色星期五交易无序增长

尽管零售商正在为黑色星期五准备一些未完成的优惠，但一度狂热的购物日的光芒已经减弱，因为产品折扣在假日季节开始提前出现。以前只在黑色星期五（以及在线等价物“网络星期一”）获得的折扣，逐渐转移到秋季早些时候。俄勒冈州本德的咨询服务公司恩德尔集团（EnderleGroup）首席分析师Rob Enderle表示：这更像是黑色、网络11月。他告诉《电子商务时报》：现在的趋势是，在亚马逊吞噬这一切之前，尽可能多地获取资金。“黑色星期五”早在10月份就开始了，一些零售商——办公仓库的数字业务高级副总裁Natalie Malaszenko，该办公室的总部设在佛罗里达州博卡拉顿，她对《电子商务时报》表示：10月底，许多零售商将走出去，谈论他们与众不同的——免运费、一小时内在商店取货的能力，或者价格匹配。马拉申科说：然后在11月——从字面上看，万圣节结束——你开始看到黑色星期五或黑色星期五的初见。她补充说：大多数零售商提前发布”黑色星期五”的插页，以帮助购物者确定去哪里。”整个 11 月的月变成了某种形式的黑色星期五定价月。

大插入，大交易

百思买（52页）、沃尔玛（32页）和Target（47页）发布了一些最大的黑色星期五插页。

零售商们押注4K电视将在这个节日里大受欢迎，百思买在宣传单上占据显著位置。它提供43英寸东芝智能4K套为129.99美元，它还以 599.99 美元出售 65 英寸三星 4K 单元。与此同时，沃尔玛正在以398美元为65英寸4K Roku电视做广告。

游戏机是节日期间另一个受欢迎的项目。Target 在流行的 Xbox One S 1tb Minecraft 捆绑包上提供黑色星期五交易。捆绑包是 199 美元， Target 将赠送一张 20 美元的礼品卡，这是一笔不错的交易，但不像科尔的那么好，它和Target 的价格差不多，并抛出了一张 60 美元的礼品卡。

智能手机交易已成为黑色星期五的主打，今年也不例外。Target 正在把礼品卡和它卖的 iphone 型号捆绑在一起。它购买 iphone Xs 或 Xs Max包括一张 250 美元的卡，购买一部 iphone 8、 8 Plus 或 X将获得一张 150 美元的卡。这还不及沃尔玛，沃尔玛在购买XS、XS Max或XR时，将获得一张300美元的礼品卡，购买8、8 Plus或X，则有一张400美元的礼品卡。购买 Galaxy Note 9 （由 Verizon 或 AT&T 激活）或者Galaxy S9 和 S9+，并由 Verizon、Sprint 或 AT&T 激活，Target 还提供一张 300 美元的礼品卡，

笔记本电脑的讨价还价

黑色星期五优惠对笔记本电脑购物者也大有作为。购买两本三星Chromebook，百思买提供200美元以下的优惠。两者都有11.6英寸的屏幕。一个内存为 2 GB，固态存储容量为 16 GB（99 美元）;另一个内存为 4 GB，存储容量为 32 GB（129 美元）。

在低于500美元的范围内，斯台普斯正在销售一款HP展馆型号，其显示屏为15.6英寸，英特尔酷睿i7处理器，24GB内存和1TB硬盘，售价499美元。与此同时，Costco正在以500美元的折扣出售戴尔光滑的XPS触摸屏笔记本电脑。Costco 还提供四人团价（1000 美元）和 InstaView 冰箱（1300 美元）的大幅折扣。

另一个有望在黑色星期五热销的项目是谷歌家庭中心，它旨在驱动智能小工具，用量在许多家庭中激增。Target、百思买和沃尔玛都在以99美元出售这个中心，但百思买在百思买奖励中花费了10美元，沃尔玛正在增加10美元的VUDU信用额度和6个月的免费YouTube高级版。

黑色星期五的营业时间混杂着，一些商店将在感恩节关门，其他将开放几个小时，然后关闭并在周五重新开放。沃尔玛、Target 和百思买都将在感恩节开放 — — 沃尔玛、百思买和Target都是下午 5 点。

交易稀释

‘‘黑色星期五”曾经是假日购物的盛会，但现在不是这样了， 总部位于芝加哥的全球管理咨询公司 A.T. Kearney 的合伙人 Ryan Fisher 指出：他援引公司最近进行的一项调查，预计20%的购物者在感恩节前会花的钱比去年多。费舍尔对《电子商务时报》表示：”黑色星期五和网络星期一不再是零售商的里程碑了。”它们被用来作为衡量假日消费的衡量标准，但假日季节的开始时间越早。

‘‘黑色星期五”是实体销售的日子，网络星期一是网上销售的日子已经过去。费舍尔说：”越来越多的界限变得模糊不清。”零售商将他们的假日季节涵盖所有渠道。它更多的是关于如何满足客户的需求，无论他们在哪里购买。

全国零售联合会预计11月和12月零售额将比2017年增长4.3%至4.8%，达到7174.5亿美元，达到7208.9亿美元。这些销售中相当一部分将是电子商务交易。

总部位于伦敦的品牌制造商和零售商的数据、见解和咨询服务机构，负责全球高管教育的副总裁 Chris Perry 指出，电子商务在零售总额中所占的比例一直在增长。他说，2014年这一比例为11%。四年后，预计达到17%。佩里对《电子商务时报》说，早期折扣”开始冲淡黑色星期五的力量”。最终，折扣不足以吸引购物者等到黑色星期五和网络星期一等黄金购物日，他们会想要的不仅仅是折扣。佩里说：”我认为，你会看到越来越多的戏剧与交易，这是一个非常伟大的价值，同时提供一个机会，做一些伟大的事情，为别人，”如贡献一个慈善机构。

Although retailers are slating some outstanding deals for Black Friday, the shine of the once-feverish shopping day has diminished, as product discounts have started to appear earlier and earlier in the holiday season.

Discounts formerly found exclusively on Black Friday -- and on its online equivalent, Cyber Monday -- gradually have migrated to earlier in the fall.

‘‘It's more like Black and Cyber November,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Oregon.

‘‘The trend now is to capture as much money as possible before Amazon gobbles it all up,” he told the E-Commerce Times.

Black Friday starts as early as October for some retailers, noted Natalie Malaszenko, senior vice president for digital business at Office Depot, which has its headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.

‘‘At the end of October, a lot of retailers will go out and talk about their differentiator -- free shipping, the ability to pick up in stores in one hour, or price-matching,” she told the E-Commerce Times.

‘‘Then in November -- literally as Halloween ends -- you start seeing early Black Friday or Black Friday sneak peeks,” Malaszenko said.

‘‘Most retailers put out their Black Friday inserts out early to help shoppers determine where to go,” she added. ‘‘The whole month of November becomes some form of Black Friday pricing.”

Big Inserts, Big Deals

Some of the biggest Black Friday inserts have been released by Best Buy (52 pages), Walmart (32 pages) and Target (47 pages).

Retailers are betting 4K TVs will be a hit this holiday season, and Best Buy features them prominently in its flyer. It's offering a 43-inch Toshiba Smart 4K set for US$129.99. It's also selling a 65-inch Samsung 4K unit for $599.99. Meanwhile, Walmart is advertising a 65-inch 4K Roku TV for $398.

Gaming consoles are another popular item during the holidays. Target is offering a Black Friday deal on the popular Xbox One S 1TB Minecraft Bundle. The bundle is $199, and Target will throw in a $20 gift card. That's a good deal, but not as good as Kohl's, which meets Target's price and throws in a $60 gift card.

Smartphone deals have become a staple of Black Friday, and this year is no exception. Target is bundling gift cards with the iPhone models it's selling. It includes a $250 card with the purchase of an iPhone XS or XS Max, and a $150 card with an iPhone 8, 8 Plus or X. That's not quite as good as Walmart, which throws in a $300 gift card with the purchase of an XS, XS Max or XR, and a $400 card with the 8, 8 Plus or X.

Target also is offering a $300 gift card with the purchase of a Galaxy Note 9 -- with activation by Verizon or AT&T -- as well as with the Galaxy S9 and S9+ -- with activation by Verizon, Sprint or AT&T.

Laptop Bargains

Black Friday deals also are good for laptop shoppers. For under $200, Best Buy is offering two Samsung Chromebooks. Both have 11.6-inch screens. One has 2 GB of memory and 16 GB of solid state storage ($99); the other has 4 GB of memory and 32 GB of storage ($129).

In the under-$500 range, Staples is selling an HP Pavilion model with a 15.6-inch display, Intel Core i7 processor, 24 GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive for $499. Meanwhile, Costco is selling Dell's slick XPS touchscreen laptop at a $500 discount.

Costco also is offering sizable discounts on a four-person spa ($1,000 off) and an InstaView refrigerator ($1,300 off).

Another item that promises to be hot on Black Friday is the Google Home Hub, which is designed to tame the smart gadgets proliferating in many homes. Target, Best Buy and Walmart all are selling the hub for $99, but Best Buy is tossing in $10 in Best Buy Rewards, and Walmart is adding a $10 VUDU credit and six months of free YouTube Premium.

Store hours on Black Friday will be a mixed bag. Some stores will be closed on Thanksgiving. Others will open for a few hours, then close and reopen on Friday.

Walmart, Target and Best Buy all will open on Thanksgiving -- Walmart at 6 p.m.; Best Buy and Target at 5 p.m.

Deal Dilution

Black Friday used to be the event that set off holiday shopping, but that's not the case anymore, noted Ryan Fisher, a partner with A.T. Kearney, a global managing consulting firm with headquarters in Chicago.

Twenty percent of shoppers will spend more before Thanksgiving than last year, he predicted, citing a recent survey conducted by his firm.

‘‘Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not the big milestones they were for retailers any longer,” Fisher told the E-Commerce Times. ‘‘They're used as measurements to talk about holiday spending, but the holiday season is starting earlier and earlier.”

The days of Black Friday being a day for brick-and-mortar sales, and Cyber Monday being a day for online sales have passed.

‘‘More and more, those lines are blurred,” Fisher said. ‘‘Retailers are looking at their holiday season as encompassing all channels. It's more about how to fulfill a customer's needs, no matter where they buy.”

November and December retail sales are forecast to be 4.3 percent to 4.8 percent higher than 2017, reaching $717.45 billion to $720.89 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. A substantial amount of those sales will be e-commerce transactions.

E-commerce keeps growing as a percentage of total retail sales, noted Chris Perry, vice president for global executive education at Edge by Ascential, a data, insights and advisory service for brand manufacturers and retailers, based in London.

In 2014, it was about 11 percent, he said. Four years later, it's expected to reach 17 percent.

Early discounts are ‘‘starting to dilute the power of Black Friday,” Perry told the E-Commerce Times.

Eventually, discounts won't be enough to attract shoppers to prime shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They'll want more than discounts.

‘‘I think you're going to see more and more of a play with a deal that's a really great value and at the same time offer a chance to do something great for others,” Perry said, ‘‘such as contributing to a charity.”