In a sense, boxing day was the original Black Friday. Shoppers flocked to malls and shops to score the biggest deals in the thick of bustling crowds and long line ups.
The culture around boxing day garnered a reputation of being a bit extreme, with fist fights breaking out over TVs, customers snatching gifts from each others hands parking lots reminiscent of Fast & the Furious style store parking lots.
The excitement and energetic charge around boxing day also started to deflate as it became more obvious that stores were discounting prices on upmarked items.
Boxing Day isn’t quite the same
Boxing Day was once the biggest day on the Canadian retail calendar. Now, more than 84% of Canadians say Black Friday is their most important shopping day.
Either way, Boxing Day is still a significant shopping holiday. Due to recent shifts in shopping behaviour and patterns, retailers need to adjust their approach to cater to more conscientious and intentional shoppers.
The types of scarcity tactics and other in-store alarm triggering tricks may not be as effective.
Naturally, this comes with the domination of online shopping, which allows consumers to do extensive product research and cross-analyze their choices before buying.
Snooze you lose?
Retail analyst Bruce Winder recommends taking advantage of Boxing Week deals sooner than later before stores run out of stock.
“I jumped on the Amazon and Walmart and Canadian Tire websites this morning. They all have some pretty good deals. If you kind of wait, you might miss out on the inventory, it might be sold out. So, if you’ll see something you like, it’s best to buy it as soon as possible.”
Winder told CTV News that across Canada, he expects Boxing Day to be “pretty brisk” this year, as many Canadians planned to shop post December 25th to take advantage of Christmas discounts.
According to Vividata, Boxing Week 2025 will see similar participation levels as in 2024, with 8.6 million Canadians expected to shop.
While these facts may be accurate, we also want to remind readers that making thoughtful decisions about the necessity and function of purchased goods is critical. Holiday debt could mount to over a collective $6.1B dollars this year for Canadians.
Securing your financial future and longevity is a powerful way to counteract the beckoning of shiny new products fresh off the shelf.
Black Friday vs Boxing Day
The main difference between Black Friday and Boxing Day is that the latter mostly appeals to shoppers who know exactly what they want to buy. Black Friday tends to be more impulsive.
“Most of our respondents who are heavy participants in Boxing Day shopping, they’ve done their research,” Pat Pellegrini, Vividata’s president and CEO, told CTV News Channel.
“They like social media that has reviews, they know exactly what they’re looking for. I think it’s a really relevant holiday, and it probably will go on for the week, and people will be looking for those precise items; it’s less impulse and more purposeful shopping.”
Research by Vividata also found that across the entire holiday shopping season, most Canadians continue to purchase from brick-and-mortar stores, despite the prevalence of online shopping.
“Not only did Boxing Day participants say they were more online than ever the last year, but they also say they visited more malls, so you’ve got quite a mix. I think it will be a little bit heavy towards in-person, but a lot more online than you’d normally see,” said Pellegrini.
Are you a Boxing Day shoppers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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