What impact will Black Friday sales have on the CBD sector?

Overall it seems the industry – particularly in Europe – is not expecting much from Black Friday sales. European companies appear to consider CBD products more as health products that are requirement purchases throughout the year as opposed to lifestyle products that might be purchased as a one off during a special sales event.

The situation may be slightly different in the US where Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving (the final Thursday in November) that many consumers would traditionally take as an additional holiday and use to make a start on holiday shopping – is a more established idea that consumers would expect a company to fulfil to some degree.

Nonetheless, quite a lot of companies appear to be running some form of discount both in Europe and the US. Many plan to have a full holiday sales period stretching from Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the following Monday that was initially added as an online counter-point to what were traditionally brick-and-mortar sales on Black Friday – straight through December to the traditional holiday period.

Many are preparing specific gift baskets or package options for consumers. Although most think of CBD as something to be purchased year round, it appears some companies view Black Friday as a time to perhaps get new consumers to try products – though many are also waiting until the traditional January ‘New Year’s resolutions, New Me’ period to really highlight promotions.

In some ways, CBD companies are either deliberately downplaying expected impact from Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales or are missing a trick. After all, Thanksgiving and the subsequent end-of-year holidays are often thought of as some of the most stressful and anxiety-inducing times of the year. That being the case, when better to promote CBD products?

But given the number of sites advertising some form of Black Friday discount, it may be more that CBD companies do not want to play up potential sales from the period too much in case they, like many other consumer figures for the year 2020, end up being rather deflated.

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CannIntelligence

This article was written by one of CannIntelligence’s international correspondents. We currently employ more than 40 reporters around the world to cover individual cannabis and cannabinoid markets. For a full list, please see our Who We Are page.