More Canadians are taking advantage of 'Black Friday' sales as retailers are increasingly offering door-crashing deals north of the border. But what does that mean for Boxing Day?
One expert says as more retailers offer significant markdowns in merchandise leading up to the holidays, Boxing Day is increasingly becoming irrelevant.
"Every year it seems that we get an expanded definition of what Black Friday is, to the extent that it's almost becoming Black November," says Doug Stephens, retail advisor and founder of Retail Prophet.
Stephens told CTVNews.ca that with blowout sales beginning in November, retailers are selling at lower and lower profit margins leading up to Christmas Eve.
"Anything you're left with after Christmas is exceptionally hard to blowout, because you've already set consumer expectations to be so high in terms of promotions," he said.
"You could argue that we may see the end of Boxing Day because it really won't have much of an impact anymore."
According to a recent BMO holiday spending report, 47 per cent of Canadians are planning to shop on Black Friday -- which lands on Nov. 29 this year. That鈥檚 an increase of 15 per cent, compared to 2012.
The survey also found that fewer Canadians are planning to brave the crowds on Boxing Day -- with 59 per cent of respondents indicating they'll do some shopping on Dec. 26, down from 62 per cent in 2012.
Major retailers including Future Shop, Sears and Walmart have already advertised Black Friday sales in Canada.
Doug Porter, BMO Capital Markets Chief Economist, said Canadian retailers are 鈥渞ising to the challenge of the lure of cross-border shopping,鈥� which is intensified by a loonie that鈥檚 close to parity and more generous duty-free limits for shoppers.
But as retailers in Canada add another shopping day to the calendar, Stephens said Canadians will continued to head south of border to cash in on major savings -- noting that the cost of some goods in the U.S. are between 20 to 70 per cent cheaper than in Canada.
"Until such time as Canadian retailers are capable of being as competitive on prices as U.S. retailers -- which some might argue will never happen because we don't have the population -- I think it's always going to be worthwhile for consumers to look at prices south of the border."
