Young Europeans love American culture, and many of them now enjoy going to prom at their school and celebrating Halloween with their friends. But there’s an exception to the Americanization of the old continent: Thanksgiving has not (yet!) crossed the ocean. Only 7% of young consumers celebrate Thanksgiving in Western Europe, and in France only 2%.
So, what about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two special shopping days that happen around Thanksgiving? Well, those are not unique to North America. YPulse explored the topic with the recent WE Holiday Shopping Plans Report and today we’re giving you three stats to help you understand how young Europeans plan to shop for Black Friday / Cyber Monday this year:
Most consumers in Western Europe have plans to shop on Black Friday
Though Thanksgiving is not a thing in WE, Black Friday definitely is. With almost three-quarters of young Europeans planning to shop these days, this shopping holiday is a real deal in this region. A quick glance at the main retailers in Western Europe confirms the trend: Carrefour, John Lewis, and Argos—to name a few—are already starting to advertise Black Friday deals. Black Friday has permeated European culture and has become perhaps the biggest shopping event of the year.
Brands should take note that Cyber Monday is not as popular as Black Friday among young Europeans, with 29% saying they plan to celebrate Cyber Monday this year. But this does mean there’s room for growth in the future, and brands should double-down their marketing for Cyber Monday to inform young consumers about the deals and attract them to shop for the digital deals.
The number who plan to spend less this year has gone up
Young Europeans are more likely to say they’ll be spending less this year. The current economic and political situation in Western Europe is undeniably to blame. Young consumers are witnessing an energy crisis in the continent—and the pipeline leakage didn’t help the situation!—and are expecting even more hardship to come this winter. This is especially true for U.K. consumers, who are a lot more likely to have already started their winter holidays shopping (34% vs 21% in the four other Western European countries on average). Across Western Europe, young consumers are being cautious and are thinking about their budget when shopping. Last year, 61% of shoppers told YPulse they would be relying on Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals because of a tighter budget. This year 64% say the same, showing how Gen Z and Millennials in this region are increasingly worried about their spending.
But there is good news: 80% of consumers in Western Europe plan to spend the same amount of money or more than last year on Black Friday / Cyber Monday, which is still an impressive number. And again, the same number of young consumers in Western Europe plan to shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year compared to 2021. So young consumers are not disinterred in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s just that some of them (20%) are not planning to spend as much as did last year.
And three in four young consumers in Western Europe would welcome deals earlier than Black Friday
With tighter budgets in mind, most young Europeans are looking forward to Black Friday / Cyber Monday and they see these two days as a great opportunity to get good deals. But Gen Z and Millennials are also very keen to get deals from brands as early as possible. It’s a general trend that can be observed, not just before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but for the winter holidays in general. And brands have already started to release early deals now, to best reach young consumers at the prime time they want to shop. Speaking of prime, perhaps the best example of early deals is the October Amazon Prime Days, which the online retailer giant described as a “chance to kick off the holiday shopping season early”—in case we didn’t figure this one out! Amazon is hugely popular among young consumers in Western Europe—we know it’s their favorite retail brand—so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 66% of them plan to shop on Amazon this year for their holiday shopping (compared to 48% in 2021).
