By Aimee Chanthadavong
Online shopping USA will attempt to broadcast America’s Black Friday event live via Twitter on November 25.
Online Shopping USA will be tweeting live store discounts and special offers from recommended online retailers as they become available over a 24 hour period. The event, to be webcast on http://onlineshoppingusa.com.au/black-friday/will begin at 8pm Eastern Daylight time, 4am New York time.
Almost equivalent to Australia’s Boxing Day sales but with larger markdowns, Black Friday is the traditional start of the shopping sales in the US. The day follows the American Thanksgiving holiday and is one of the biggest shopping days of the retail calendar. On Black Friday, many US retailers open early, often 4am, to launch their sales and take advantage of the increased number of shoppers.
Speaking to RetailBiz, James Harris, Online Shopping USA co-founder, said this event will help highlight the value for money achievable from shopping online on US websites.
“Black Friday is a novel event for Australian’s so we wanted to bring it to Australia in a fun and exciting way and we’re using Twitter to do that. It’s a way to broadcast deals immediately to an audience, which is why we thought Twitter would be an ideal platform,” he said.
Using hashtag #osublackfriday, the 24 hour tweetathon will allow other Twitter users to follow along and join in the fun by adding their own favourite deals and discounts from online stores. The event page will also keep a permanent log of all the best deals from the day.
According to Harris, online shopping is clearly popular and Online Shopping USA wants to make this event easier.
“I think the first and foremost the convenience and look online and compare prices and price are big factor as well. With the rise of the Australian dollar they’re seeing cheaper items on o/s website and when they rely on markups and traditional products,” he said.
At the same time, he also commends that there are local retailers who are starting to catch-up on this trend.
“I think there are good examples of Westfield, Myer and Harvey Norman and are catching up. I think they’re realising online has significant growth and that they need to be on board on that. A year ago and bit sluggish but they have moved up quickly on that in the last year,” Harris said.