Black Friday vs Boxing Day: Which Sale Event Offered Better Deals?

When it comes to shopping events, Black Friday stands out as one of the most anticipated dates for scoring deals. Typically occurring the day after Thanksgiving, the weekend kicks off the holiday shopping season with a frenzy of discounts. But Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26, is also well-known for its post-Christmas clearance sales.

This Black Friday, US eCommerce sales increased by a hefty 14.6% in 2024, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. While Black Friday leads in overall revenue generation for retailers, Boxing Day presents unique opportunities for clearing post-holiday inventory.

For a consumer, which sale event is likely to offer the most attractive deals?

At DataWeave, we analyzed discounts across retailers and categories to uncover the answer.

Our Methodology

For this analysis, we tracked pricing data across major retailers for Black Friday and Boxing Day. To provide a comprehensive analysis of Black Friday pricing strategies, we explored a matched products dataset, comparing identical 14,000+ SKUs across retailers within key categories.

• Categories included: Consumer Electronics, Home & Furniture, Apparel, Health & Beauty, Grocery
• Retailers included: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Overstock, Home Depot, Best Buy, Saks Fifth Ave, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus
• Timeline: November 26 (Black Friday), December 26 (Boxing Day)

Average Discounts: Black Friday vs Boxing Day

Our analysis reveals that Black Friday generally offered steeper discounts across most categories, although Boxing Day wasn’t far behind. Here’s a breakdown:

While Black Friday led in most categories, Apparel saw a slight edge on Boxing Day, with discounts averaging 40.22% compared to 37.67% on Black Friday. Electronics, Beauty, and Home, however, remained more lucrative during Black Friday.

Top 5 Products Higher Discounts on Black Friday

Diving deeper into specific products, here are our top 5 picks offering better discounts during Black Friday.

• Appliances like an Immersion blender set offering a discount of 88.29%, significantly higher than its Boxing Day offer of 86.62%. 
• High-end electronics like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 also saw substantial markdowns at 84.60%. 
• In beauty and fashion, both La Roche Posay’s retinol serum and Vera Bradley’s satchel offered discounts above 80%. 
• Even everyday essentials like paper towels enjoyed generous discounts, with markdowns reaching 82.35% during Black Friday compared to 76.47% on Boxing Day.

Top 5 Products With Higher Discounts on Boxing Day

Boxing Day revealed some remarkable deals across diverse categories, with certain products offering significantly better value than their Black Friday counterparts.

• The JBL Go 2 portable speaker emerged as the standout, with an extraordinary 82% Boxing Day discount compared to just 20% on Black Friday—a dramatic 62% difference.
• Home furnishings showed strong Boxing Day performance, with the Costway accent armchair set reaching 80.30% off.

In Conclusion

Black Friday reigns supreme in driving early holiday sales, offering deeper discounts and drawing larger crowds. However, Boxing Day remains critical for retailers to offload surplus inventory and attract post-holiday shoppers.

By combining insights from both events, retailers can refine their strategies to maximize revenue and enhance customer satisfaction. For shoppers, the decision comes down to timing—shop early for better deals or wait to capitalize on clearance markdowns. The products and categories with more attractive offers tend to vary between these two sale events. Hence, as a shopper, it’s a good idea to keep track of prices all through the holiday season to take advantage of the best deals.

Check out our comprehensive coverage of Black Friday 2024 deals and discounts across categories.

For a deeper dive into the world of competitive pricing intelligence and to explore how our solutions can benefit apparel retailers and brands, reach out to us today!

- Jeevanantham Kailasam
Jeeva is Manager - Business Analytics at Dataweave working with Brands to help them improve their discoverability and inturn revenue across eCommerce Platforms. He can be reached at jeeva.kailasam@dataweave.com, 21st Jan, 2025

Amazon Beauty Black Friday Brands Cyber Monday Discounts E Commerce Electronics Fashion Global