The Black Friday 2017 ads have started to leak, and it appears that major retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are ready to go all-in on a wave of new technologies in what seems to be a bid to entice more Millennial shoppers.
The annual shopping bonanza that was once reserved for the day after Thanksgiving has now crept earlier and earlier into the month, with the first deals now starting at the beginning of November and most of the ads released by the end of the first week.
That was the case this year, with Walmart’s Black Friday 2017 ad already leaking to the internet along with a number of others. The ads show that this year will continue an ever-sharpening focus on gadgets, which are making up a larger and larger portion of Black Friday deals each year.
That was evident in Walmart’s Black Friday ad, NJ.com noted, which showed deals like a $298 Sharp 55-inch 4K Smart TV, a $29 Google Home Mini, and an Xbox One console for $189.
Best Buy and Target have a tech-heavy sales slate as well. NJ.com report noted that the best deals for Best Buy include a Sharp 50-inch LED Smart 4K Ultra HD TV for $179.99 and a Samsung 11.6-inch 2 GB Chromebook for $99. Target’s deals include a Google Home Mini for $29 and Xbox One S 500GB console for $189.99.
There could be a good reason for the focus on tech gadgets for Black Friday sales. Trends have increasingly shown that Millennial shoppers are turned off to the idea of Black Friday, and slashing prices even further on the high-tech items they love may entice them in.
It could be a difficult gambit for retailers. As Forbes pointed out, there has been a sharp drop in Black Friday participation among the youngest shoppers.
“At the onset of the first Black Friday in 1952, it was a big deal for consumers, generating excitement to officially launch the upcoming holiday season. Even Cyber Monday, established in 2005, created a new type of buzz to excite consumers to take advantage of easy online shopping after the long Thanksgiving weekend. But today’s younger shoppers — ages 13 to 35 — seem to be immune to the hype: 75% of them will opt to spread their shopping out over the following weeks.”
It is increasingly hard for retailers to get Millennial shoppers to leave their homes. A recent study from Natural Insight found that 88 percent of shoppers between the age of 45 and 59 planned to shop in stores, but that was 8 percentage points lower for shoppers between the ages of 18 and 29.
Our Black Friday 2017 deals revealed: https://t.co/iTqwL97v8m Big savings on PS4, PlayStation VR, and more pic.twitter.com/mpA0fYJH8u
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) November 10, 2017
Despite the difficult projections, there is still quite a bit of buzz around the shopping holiday. The Black Friday 2017 leaked ads have generated the customary interest, with the releases getting attention from news outlets across the country.
[Featured Image by Scott Olson/Getty Images]