With the holiday season well and truly upon us, the eCommerce market is becoming more bustling than ever. With so many different discounts and promotions here, there, and everywhere, buyers found themselves drowning in a sea of choice. So, it's vital that marketers get it right. But with budgets tight and environmental awareness more prominent than ever, did 2022 present the perfect opportunity for a ‘greener’ Black Friday?
Therefore, as the confusion and chaos of Black Friday descended upon the population (causing frantic and predominantly needless spending!) beneath this appearance, there has been a growing movement away from the impulsive and occasionally damaging behaviours in favour of a much more positive relationship with ourselves and our world. Introducing the new ‘Green Friday’. The movement is all about giving and investing in things that actually matter. And of course, this humanitarian ethos is not just a material one. The point is to open up our minds much more, thinking long term instead of the short term. Instead, donating our time, efforts, money and expertise to others who will benefit.
Here is our curated list of businesses that successfully took a stand and achieved ‘Green Friday’ over ‘Black Friday’ this year……
Ikea
The well-known Swedish retailer discarded Black Friday in favour of Green Friday and this year opted to promote its ‘Buyback & Resell’ scheme, encouraging its customers to sell back their furniture to the business. This is already a well-established campaign that the retailer offers, however, from 18th November, Ikea allowed customers to get an additional 50% off new items when returning used Ikea furniture to their nearest store, doing their part in the battle for sustainability.
Ryobi
Based in the U.K, Ryobi are one of the largest and most innovative power tool manufacturers in the world, dedicated to delivering outstanding performance and reliability. They aim to reduce the number of unnecessary batteries and chargers needed, and create electronic ignition systems that are devised to produce less polluting engines. This manufacturer opted to offer multiple discounts on greener products in their strive to make a difference this ‘Green Friday’.
Rituals
The well-known beauty retailer Rituals is another business that pushed ‘Green Friday’ rather than Black Friday. The brand was offering customers deals on its sustainable refills, rather than discounting all its product lines. For every refill sold, Rituals plant, protect or restore a tree. Rituals said: “We think it is important that you feel good and that we take care of the planet at the same time, this way you not only save on packaging, but also keep money in your wallet.”
Rixo
Rixo is a successful womenswear fashion brand and another big name that stepped away from Black Friday in favour of Giving Tuesday. This is another global movement that encourages people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. The brand will instead be donating £15 from ever transaction to ‘Women for Women International’ - a charity supporting women in some of the world’s most dangerous places. The co-founders of the business proudly stated: “As female founders with no investors, we have the power to make these decisions and are proud to do so, therefore we have re-aligned with our values and won’t follow mass consumer trends and be forced into markdowns. We haven’t increased our prices, even though inflation and our cost across the board have creeped up, we are taking the hit as we believe in offer our customer, you, true value for money. As part of our ongoing sustainability journey, we only produce limited runs of the special things customers treasure for years to come”
Anya Hindmarch
Standing firmly on this, as with previous years, Anya Hindmarch did not participate in this years ‘Black Friday’ event either.
Their website stated “We put a lot of time and thought into every stage of our collections. Return to Nature, our collection of biodegradable bags, was a two-year project – the Universal Bag, launched last year, took even longer. As with creating, we believe in a considered approach to shopping, investing in pieces you’ll love for seasons to come rather than impulse spending that could add to landfill”
The company is not only conscious about its products but also about its packaging too. This is an issue that businesses face towards using more sustainable packaging sooner rather than later. They teamed up with one of the world's leading companies in luxury, innovating and sustainable packaging, ‘Delta Global’ a company well known for partnering with multiple large corporations and changing the way they not only think about packaging to supporting them to act also.
The ‘Green Friday’ movement has gained momentum and an increasing number of brands are upping their efforts to educate consumers on eco-conscious consumption and shopping. It’s becoming a more difficult subject to ignore, as more and more customers are becoming more conscious about sustainability. But can you completely turn Black Friday green from now on by creating a new shopping tradition that respects the environment instead of participating in the overconsumption and the wastage of the traditional Black Friday?
Overall, it comes down to the traditional Black Friday VS the innovative Green Friday. Which ‘Friday’ is most important to you?
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