Black Friday phenomenon in Hungary

Abstract

AIM OF THE PAPER
The aim of the paper is to provide an exploratory analysis of the “Black Friday” phenomenon in Hungary, with special emphasis on mapping the main characteristics of consumer behavior. In the study we survey the “international career” of Black Friday, from the beginning to present, its connection points to marketing tools, the Hungarian people’s reaction to it in 2016, consumer activities, product range and store type preferences, spending characteristics and we also examine the statistical connection between the variables.

METHODOLOGY
In the research - after providing a brief overview of the relevant international literature - with empirical methods we examined the awareness of Black Friday and the characteristics of the consumer behavior in Hungary. To explore the people’s opinion and their shopping behavior, we created an online questionnaire with Google Forms. In our research we reached 272 respondents between November 27 and 30, 2016. The replies were processed with IBM SPSS Statistics 20 and have been analyzed then. The distribution of the answers has been analyzed with descriptive statistical methods, and the connection between some important (not metric) variables has also been examined with a Khi-square test. For choosing our methods, the techniques of data collection (online questionnaire), which influenced the specific characteristics (measurement level) of the variables - we had nominal and ordinal levels of measurement (Babbie 2008, Ghauri & Gronhaug 2011).

KEY FINDINGS
When processing the data, we found that the ratio of respondents buying something or not buying anything was 1/3 to 2/3, the mode of spending was between 10.000 and 25.000 HUF per capita. The preferred type of retail unit was e-shops (76% of the buyers shopped online), and the dominant product groups were electric appliances and clothing items during the sale.

RECOMMENDATION
The participation data of the buyers, as well as the findings of the research on their spendings and shop preferences can be used by retailers planning to participate in the Black Friday sale.