Black Friday? Canadians eye Cyber Monday deals

Michael Oliveira

Toronto? The Canadian Press

Published Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011 10:19AM EST

Last updated Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011 11:15AM EST

For the most dedicated of deal hunters, Black Friday is hands down the biggest shopping day of the year and will mean trekking to the U.S. to fight massive crowds, waiting for hours in long lines and ? hopefully ? scoring some major bargains.

For everyone else, it'll be fairly easy to find some Black Friday sales close to home ? they just might be called something else.

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Canadian retailers have increasingly bought into the Black Friday hype ? as well as Cyber Monday, a day of online sales to cap off the shopping weekend ? and this year, few of the major names are opting out.

?What we've seen every single year is more and more growth in participation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and we'll see the same this year, that's what all the signs are pointing to,? said Derek Szeto, founder the online shopping site Redflagdeals.com, which is hosting flyers and discussions about this weekend's deals.

Among the stores planning on Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales are Amazon.ca, Apple.ca, Banana Republic, Best Buy, the Body Shop, Canadian Tire, Chapters and Indigo, Dell.ca, Future Shop, the Gap, Home Outfitters, La Senza, Lululemon Athletica, Old Navy, PetSmart, Sears, Sephora, The Source, Sport Chek, Sport Mart, Toys ?R? Us, Walmart and Zellers. To name a few.

According to a recent survey commissioned by Visa Canada, about a third of Canadian online shoppers said they were likely to shop at American retailers between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Analytics firm comScore said U.S. online spending should increase 15 per cent this holiday season, outpacing even last year?s torrid growth.

ComScore estimated Wednesday that U.S. e-commerce sales for the November and December period would reach $37.6-billion this year, after getting off to a fast start: the firm said on Tuesday that online sales were up 14 per cent in the first 20 days of November.

A survey for PayPal Canada found 52 per cent of Canadians were aware of Cyber Monday, up from 24 per cent last year.

Mr. Szeto said Cyber Monday has the potential to be even bigger than Black Friday, since Canadians can shop at U.S. stores right from their homes instead of having to cross the border.

U.S. retailers like Bloomingdale's, J.C. Penney, Macy's, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom offer Canadian shipping and include the cost of taxes and duties at check out.

And even for sites that don't ship to Canada, there are mail depots close to the U.S. border that will accept packages for Canadians for a small fee.

Some web shoppers are already doing their homework and eyeing the upcoming sales prices in the U.S. Mr. Szeto notes that Google statistics for the last few years show Canadian searches for Black Friday are now exceeding searches for Boxing Day.

For consumers, the shopping holiday on the day after U.S. Thanksgiving usually means rock bottom prices, which regularly lead to stampedes, assaults and parking-lot robberies.

But it'll be difficult for Canadian retailers to match some of the deepest U.S. discounts, which might explain why most stores aren't using the term Black Friday in their advertising.

Sears Canada is one of the exceptions and spokesman Vincent Power said there is a danger in committing to being a part of the U.S. shopping trend but then not going all in.

?If stores try to go out and call it ?Black Friday' and it's not a big enough deal then I think you risk people perhaps suggesting that you've got to give it a better effort,? Mr. Power said, adding that it's just the second year that Sears has used Black Friday in its ads.

?Relative to the Canadian marketplace, the deals we have in that time-frame are as good as deals you'd see on Boxing Day, we're talking about the same price level.

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