How Black Friday exposes India’s consumer culture

New Delhi: Out of nowhere, the patently American Black Friday Sale is rapidly becoming an Indian institution. According to The Economic Times (2023), it is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 37.4% by 2032. There are not-so-dark lessons for everybody in business. 

As a quick rewind, Black Friday is typically the Friday after Thanksgiving, the kick-off for the Christmas shopping season in the USA. Its naming has multiple source codes. Some claim that this was coined by policemen in Philadelphia (1960s), as they struggled to control the crowds seeking discounted shopping. Others opine that this is the day when retail establishments graduate from 'red’ to ‘black’, the balance sheet bolstered by aggressive demand. 

It has travelled well to India, in spite of operating in the wake of the turbulence of Diwali shopping. Brands like Samsung, Tata Cliq, and Sony have divulged their exciting offers, while Myntra, Ajio, and many others are following suit. Even hypermarkets are offering retro-pricing shopping baskets, and Business Standard Online is hawking cut-price subscriptions. Cultural connotations of the colour black have vociferously been overwhelmed by the democratic pull of e-commerce. Perhaps next year, holiday packages and apartments will join the party as the momentum gets strengthened. 

In Nehruvian consumption times, the ‘Sale’ was a life-saving sweetener, with discounted pricing breaking bread with festive bonuses to stretch the limited budget. For legacy shopping enclaves like Sarojini Nagar, New Market, MG Road, and others, bargaining was anyways SOP. Such periods simply shrunk the base offer, cloaking it with solemn non-negotiability and obvious cartelisation. As organised retail evolved, non-traditional occasions came to the party—the incredible deals at the EOSS (End of Season Sale), stimulating year-long purchase behaviour. 

According to Statista data, the number of online shoppers is predicted to increase to 427 million by 2027. Consequently, the booming e-commerce industry is estimated to be worth over 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. In the private sector, for the managerial cadre, the festive bonus has been replaced by the CTC regime, thus ensuring year-long consistency in liquidity. According to data from TransUnion Cibil, credit card defaults have risen from 1.6% in March 2023 to 1.8% by June 2024, as millennials stretch their capacity. Festive periods still witness record peaks, but that is increasingly for emotional and not transactional reasons.

The quoted data points can easily act as evidence to justify the prolificity of Black Friday. More importantly, justify the opportunity for many encores throughout the year, as customers simply seek a provocative pull to unleash the might of the UPI. An analogy can well be movie or OTT releases—the willingness to pay depending squarely on New News, packaged with sufficient flair. In the classical AIDA format, the path from desire to action is now smoother than ever before, empowered by tech-enabled liquidity. Apart from the textbook celebrations, contexts to buy need not be rooted in meaning as long as they are amplified by hype. 

Thus, Pink Friday Sale, as started by Nykaa, can well become a scalable happiness for multiple brands. As can any other day of the week or year, as long as it is packed with sufficient goodies. Happy Hours can be applied with AI-inspired precision, delivered in QCom mode. Why must Purnima and Amavasya be left behind, candidates as eligible as any other legacy period, for blitzkrieg offers? Prominent sporting victories, real-time or anniversaries, can become reasons to splurge. The next Moon Mission can lead to a Galactic Offer period, with prices inversely skyrocketing. 

In this era of prolific consumption, the role of a 'Sale' is truthfully comparable to Viagra and not, say, Club Soda. The latter adds fizz to navigate the outcome, while the former instigates the native appetite to fulfil its truest potential. People will anyway buy, and this is now a pattern in lower tiers and rural arenas as well. But an attractive 'reason why' has a sincere role to perform. 

For starters, it fosters a sense of community, whether local or, in the case of Black Friday, global. For mainstream consumers, the vast majority, this is a significant icing. Perhaps, also as a defensible alibi for excessive spending, others are also part of the same nonstop party. The 'reason why' also reinforces a socio-cultural rooting, where applicable, a kind of societal feel-good heightened by social media. 

Frankly, nobody in India cares about the significance of Black Friday, as long as the offers are persuasive. Just as P&G had once pioneered EDLP ( Every Day Low Pricing), there is room for every branded sale, subject to a delicious value proposition. May the best offer win, is the mood of the moment. Does not quite matter when and where.