Marty Swant of AdWeek has an interesting new piece up examining a new Google infographic about Black Friday foot traffic. Besides accurately describing Black Friday as a "wretched non-holiday," Swant also uses the infographic to look into the where, when, and why people actually get out of their homes to go shopping on the most annoying shopping day of the year, noting the important fact that Google's "data isn't just relevant to shoppers."
According to the infographic, the busiest time for department stores on Thanksgiving Day is between 6 and 7 p.m., which the cynical part of me thinks is due to families wanting to get the hell away from each other after harrowing dinners where crazy/drunk uncle Steve decided to share his theories about President Obama being a commie Muslim.
Black Friday's busiest time is 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., but more interesting is that shopping malls, superstores, and discount stores all peak on the Saturday before Christmas. This makes sense as last-minute shoppers try to save time by knocking out multiple errands and gifts via one store. And, also unsurprising, is the fact that on Christmas Eve the desperate go to dollar stores, which is their busiest day of the year.
Additionally, it is interesting that the integration of our online and brick-and-mortar shopping experiences is becoming very commonplace, as "82% of smartphone users will consult their phone while in a store," according to the infographic.
The infographic comes with the announcement that Google will give advertisers more insights into shoppers' offline habits, right down to store visits via data from Google Maps. It's all part of Google's push to be more appealing to advertisers in the midst of the ad war they are currently engaged in with Facebook and Apple.
Check out the whole thing below!