Finder makes money from featured partners, but editorial opinions are our own.
Black Friday Statistics
Black Friday Canada offers shoppers a few weeks of retailer deals. Here are a few facts and statistics regarding Black Friday in Canada.
Holiday sales periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a global phenomenon and one of the largest shopping days, both online and in person. In fact, new research from Finder reveals 31% of Canadian adults, or an estimated 9.6 million people, plan to shop end-of-year sales like Black Friday Deals this year. Finder surveyed 1,201 Canadian adults to find out why Canadians are shopping, and equally why those choosing not to shop are making that choice. Let’s unpack the stats.
Who is most likely to shop?
Men and women are just as likely to partake in the shopping event, with 31% of both sexes saying they plan to make a purchase.
In terms of age, younger Canadians are the most likely to partake in the event, with 37% of those aged 18-24 saying they’re shopping the sales. Meanwhile, just 23% of those aged 55-64 say the same.
Why are Canadian adults shopping the sales?
We all have our reasons for shopping the big sales events, with 11% of Canadian adults planning to shop because they think the sales provide great value and another 11% shopping because they’re bored. The remaining 9% are shopping but couldn’t give a specific reason why.
Men are more likely than women to be a “procrasti-shopper”, with 14% of men planning to shop away their boredom at the sales, compared to just 7% of women. Meanwhile, women are more likely to shop the sales because they think they’ll find a great deal, with 12% of women giving this reason compared to just 10% of men.
Why aren’t Canadians shopping the Black Friday sales?
It doesn’t take too much imagination to wonder why someone would want to buy an item for less. So why wouldn’t they?
Well, it turns out that 6% of Canadian adults think that retailers inflate prices before sales, making them want to opt out of the sales altogether.
An additional 5% say the products they want aren’t discounted, while 4% say they have never heard of Black Friday.
Which country has the most Black Friday shoppers?
Black Friday can bring to mind hoards of American bargain-hunters breaking through the front doors of stores across the country. So, it’s unsurprising the US tops the list for the number of people searching Black Friday deals in 2021.
The US has the highest search interest in Black Friday, making up roughly 21% of search volume for the shopping holiday, according to our analysis of historical search data for four key terms related to the shopping holiday in 31 countries. (See our methodology for a breakdown of our analysis.) Search interest within the US in 2021 is also up compared to 2020, jumping roughly 7%.
Germany takes silver for search interest in Black Friday, making up about 13% of the search interest in those 31 countries. And interest is way up in Germany, jumping roughly 18% year-on-year.
Taking the final spot on the podium is Brazil, which makes up around 11% of the search volume. Search interest in Brazil saw modest gains in 2021 of roughly 4%.
Chile may have only ranked 22nd in terms of search volume but saw the largest year-on-year gain in search interest (41%), whereas interest in Italy went the other way, with a precipitous drop of roughly 74%.
Want to know how your country stacks up? View the 31 countries searching for Black Friday in our map below, or use the table in the tab to see where your country ended up over the last three years:
Search volume data from Ahrefs suggests that one of the most popular places to go for Black Friday deals is Best Buy. Other popular retailers searched for include Walmart, Amazon and Costco.
What are people looking to buy on Black Friday?
In terms of specific products and brands, data suggests that people are looking to bag deals on products like the Nintendo Switch and TVs. Popular brands include Apple, Lululemon and Telus.
Finder surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,201 Canadian adults via Google surveys on 5–12 October 2021. Google applied weighting to the survey results to be representatively proportionate to the general Internet population. The details of Google’s survey methodology can be found here.
For the search data, Finder has been collecting search data for most of the 31 countries since 2019 from multiple sources, including SEMRush, Ahrefs and Google. To get the overall ranking, Finder used a combination of the term “Black Friday,” in conjunction with ancillary searches that included either year (i.e. 2020 or 2021) and the local equivalent search for “Black Friday deals.”
For the list of retailers, Finder looked at the top 1,000 search results as per Ahrefs to get a list of retailers, products and brands which were dominant in the results. Because of the large volume, various iterations of spelling mistakes and the limited scope (i.e. top 1,000 search results), we chose to present the results in no particular order.
Holiday sales season is fast approaching and Canadians’ buying habits will be very different during this holiday sales season. Experts have already predicted that this pandemic holiday season will see much less brick and mortar retail shopping during this second wave to avoid being in crowded spaces. Canada Post anticipates the biggest online holiday shopping season ever and has put out specific guidelines, including time frames of when packages should arrive depending when they were purchased.
Not to mention the economic concerns. As many Canadians have had to deal with job loss or reduced hours to stay home to care for young children or elderly family members, many people may have less discretionary income, or want to take a more cautious approach with their spending when faced with so much uncertainty.
At Finder.com we wanted to know how these unique pressures would affect Black Friday, the unofficial kick off to holiday shopping season.
Turns out Canadians may want to spend less this holiday season but they are as hungry as ever for discounts. In fact, 6 in 10 Canadians will buy a product on Black Friday if it is discounted but even more surprising is that 3 in 10 are expecting discounts of 50% to 90% and if they don’t get it they may not buy at all. Meanwhile 4 in 10 said no discount would sway them.
But before we get into what kind of discounts Canadians are looking for this Black Friday 2020, let’s look at how many Canadians would typically shop till they drop in a normal year.
How much does the average Canadian typically spend to celebrate Black Friday?
Finder.com’s research reveals that in a survey done pre-pandemic (February 2020) 43% of Canadian adults, or more than 12.8 million people, planned to spend money for Black Friday, with the average amount being $362 for those who planned to spend. That adds up to nearly $4.6 billion that Canadians intended to spend on Black Friday this year.
While a majority of Canadians (57%) said they don’t plan to buy anything, a separate survey conducted in October 2020 reveals a whopping 1.3 million could be swayed with a discount from as little as 5%.
Women more likely to be swayed by sales
Women are slightly more likely to be enticed by the sales than men, with 61% of Canadian women saying they’ll shop for an item at the right price compared to 58% of men who said the same.
Women are also swayed by slightly lower discounts. On average it’ll take a discount of 41% to make women purchase an item, with men needing to find a slightly better deal at 42%.
18-24 require steep discounts to shop
35-44-year-olds are most likely to purchase a discounted item in the sales compared to all other age brackets. 63% of people in this age range say they’ll purchase an item on sale at the right price, while 62% of 25-34-year-olds and 60% of those over 65 said the same. Those aged 45-54 and 55-64 are least likely to be swayed by sales with only 54% and 58% respectively saying they would buy for a discount.
It’ll take a lot to tempt 18-24-year-olds into shopping, with the group saying they’ll only make a purchase if it’s discounted by at least 47%. Other age brackets say they’ll purchase an item if it’s discounted anywhere from 38% to 46%.
New Brunswick require the smallest discounts to tempt a purchase
On average those in New Brunswick are swayed by the lowest discount (50%), followed by Quebec (56%) and Ontario (57%). Meanwhile people in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia say they’ll need a discount of at least 61-62% to motivate their purchase.
How does Canada compare to 12 other countries?
Of the 12 countries included in this study, Canada ranks eighth for the highest percentage of people who will be enticed by the sales at 59%. Overall South Africans are most likely to shop the holiday sales events (70%), followed by France (66%). Meanwhile, Italy has the smallest number of sales shoppers (50%), followed by New Zealand (53%) and the UK (56%).
However, in terms of the discount required to entice shoppers, Spanish adults actually require the highest discount to motivate a purchase at 60%. People from France and Mexico also require steep discounts to entice them to shop, at 59% and 58% respectively. Meanwhile, Canadians say they’ll need the smallest average discount at just 42%, followed by people in Hong Kong (44%) and Ireland (45%).
Which country has the most Black Friday shoppers?
Black Friday is synonymous with hoards of Americans breaking through the front doors of stores all across the country. But as far as the Internet is concerned, the US no longer has the top spot for Black Friday shoppers.
Brazil is the country with the highest search interest in Black Friday, according to an analysis of historical search data from SEMrush. Interest in the shopping holiday peaked and hit new highs in November 2020, jumping up 22.36% from the previous year. Brazil also accounts for 13.20% of all global searches for the term “Black Friday”.
The US doesn’t place silver either: that post is taken by France. Like Brazil, France also saw a jump in search interest year-on-year, jumping 22.22% between November 2019 and November 2020. France makes up 10.78% of all searches for the term “Black Friday”, which is quite impressive, considering that France only accounts for 0.84% of the population.
The US doesn’t even get the bronze on its own, sharing the podium with Germany for the second year in a row, with search interest in both nations increasing by the same amount over the last 12 months (22.28%). Both nations made up 8.82% of the search volume for the term “Black Friday”, but Germany is far outperforming in terms of its population size, with Germany accounting for 1.07% of the world’s population, compared to the 4.25% that the US represents.
Canada ranked equal 9th overall for Black Friday search volume. Search volume has increased by almost 23% from November last year to November 2020.
Want to know how Canada stacks up? View the top 20 countries searching for Black Friday in our map below, or use the table in the tab to see where your country ended up:
In terms of specific products, Ahrefs data suggests that Canadians are looking to bag deals for tech, makeup and sports goods this coming Black Friday sale. Some of the most popular products include gadgets such as the Switch and PS4, while some of the most popular brands include Sephora, Lululemon, Nintendo and Apple.
This data is from a nationally representative survey of 1,199 Canadian adults (18+). The survey was commissioned by Finder and conducted by Google Survey in October 2020. Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon were not included in the geographic breakdown as they did not have enough responses to be truly representative.
The pre-pandemic Black Friday spend data is from a consumer survey of 1,200 Canadian adults commissioned by Finder.com and conducted by PureProfile in February 2020. Northwest Territories, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island and Yukon were not included in the geographic breakdown due to not having enough responses.
Black Friday statistics 2019
Canadians to spend $29.5 billion on sales days like Black Friday
Canadian Thanksgiving may have passed weeks ago, but some of the biggest shopping events of the year are right around the corner – and Canadians are planning on making it a big one.
Finder’s recent survey of 1,200 Canadians reveals nearly nine in ten Canadians (87%) plan to score a deal during pre-Christmas sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With the average Canadian spending close to $1,000 ($974), this year’s end-of-year shopping is expected to contribute $29.5 billion to the economy.
What are we buying?
Canadians are most likely to shop for food and alcohol (76%), followed by clothes and shoes (65%), electronics and other gadgets (47%), toys (43%) and beauty and makeup (37%).
Rank
Category
Percentage of Canadians planning to shop these items
1
Food/Alcohol
76%
2
Clothes and shoes
65%
3
Electronics/gadgets
47%
4
Toys
43%
5
Beauty and makeup
37%
6
Travel
27%
7
Manchester and homewares
20%
8
White goods
16%
9
Furniture
13%
Where are we planning to spend the most?
People hunting for travel deals are expected to spend the most at $1,329 – which is coincidentally around the cost of an international return flight along with a few nights accommodation. People looking to purchase electronics plan to spend $311, foodies are expected to dish out roughly $250, and fashionistas are looking to spend $174 on clothes and accessories.
Electronics$311
Category
Average amount spent of those who shop for these items
Travel
$1,329
Furniture
$438
Food & alcohol
$247
Clothes and shoes
$174
Toys
$153
Homewares
$126
White goods
$113
Beauty
$102
Who’s shopping?
Gender
Men are slightly more likely than women to say they’ll shop the sales. According to the survey, 90% of men say they’ll shop the end of year sales days, compared to 85% of women. They’re also expected to spend around $260 more than women, with men forking out $1,108 on average.
Generation
The younger you are, the more you’re set to spend this shopping season. Generation Z is expected to spend $2,000, while generation Y will spend around half that ($1,015), followed by generation X ($918), and baby boomers at a conservative $710.
One of the biggest differences between generational spending habits is in the clothing category. Generation Z is much more likely to spend on items like clothes and shoes than other generations, with almost four in five of those aged 18-23 saying they’ll purchase from this category compared to just under half (48%) of baby boomers.
Region
British Columbians are most likely to hit the sales, with a whopping 91% of people from this province saying they plan to shop the big pre-Christmas sales days.
However, it’s Quebecers who plan on spending the most. Those in Quebec are set to spend $1,332, followed by British Columbians ($1,006), and Ontarians ($960). Meanwhile those from Manitoba and Saskatechewon will spend the least at $460 and $693 respectively.
Who’s shopping?
Shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a great opportunity to bag a bargain but they can make consumers feel pressured to spend. Nearly one-fifth of Canadians, or 5.2 million people, say they regret a purchase made at the 2018 sales. Interestingly, almost all of those who said they regret a purchase from 2018 will still be shopping the sales this year. Some people never learn!
How much money are we wasting?
Last year the average price of these regretful purchases was around $244, which means Canadians wasted approximately $1.3 billion on end of year shopping sales.
Just as men are more likely than women to say they’ll shop the sales, they’re also more likely to regret their purchases, with around 19% of men making the mistake last year, compared to just 15% of women. The higher rate of men regretting their purchases may have something to do with the cost of those items, with items regretted by men costing about 31% more than those regretted by women.
Those from Saskatchewan are most likely to regret shopping, with 31% of Canadian adults from this province admitting to the mistake, compared to just 6% of folks from Nova Scotia, and just under 10% of those from Manitoba.
Generally, the provinces with the most people planning to shop this year have the highest shopping regret figures. For example, consumers in Saskatchewan spent an average of $508 on their regrettable items, versus just $50 in Nova Scotia and $125 in Manitoba.
Which country has the most Black Friday shoppers?
Black Friday is synonymous with hoards of Americans busting through the front doors of stores across the country. But as far as the Internet is concerned, the US is no longer the top spot for Black Friday shoppers.
Brazil is the country with the highest search interest in Black Friday, according to an analysis of historical search data from SEMrush. Interest in the shopping holiday peaked in November 2018, jumping 83% from the previous year, and remains at the same level as at October 2019.
The US doesn’t place silver either: that post is taken by France. France is also among the biggest climbers in terms of interest in the shopping period, with search volume jumping 306.76% between November 2017 and November 2018. Since 2018, interest in the retail holiday has grown a further 49.5% as at October 2019.
The US doesn’t even get the bronze on its own, sharing the podium with Germany. While France and the US had the same search volume in November 2018, it’s the difference in this year’s October search volume that separates the two. The US saw its search volume grow by 22.26% from November 2018 to October 2019, versus a 49.5% growth for France over the same period.
Interestingly, this is not the first time search volume in the US has hit peak levels. Interest was last this high back in November 2013. Since then, interest in Black Friday has waned.
On the other hand, interest in Black Friday from German shoppers is at an all-time high, with search volume increasing 49.59% between November 2018 and October 2019.
Canada ranked equal 8th overall for Black Friday search volume. Search volume has increased 22.29% from November last year to October 2019 and 173.4% since 2014.
Want to know how Canada stacks up? View the top 20 countries searching for Black Friday in our map below, or use the table in the tab to see where your country ended up:
Which are the most popular retailers in the world?
It may come as no surprise that the most popular place to score a Black Friday deal is Walmart; the online retail giant is by far the most commonly searched retailer across the 20 countries we analyzed. In fact, people are 43.69% more likely to search for a Black Friday deal from Walmart than with the second most common retailer.
Amazon puts up a good fight, coming in as the second most popular retailer in the world to search for a Black Friday deal, with Best Buy coming in third.
10 most commonly searched retailers for Black Friday worldwide
Rank
Retailer
1
Walmart
2
Amazon
3
Best Buy
4
Target
5
Media Markt
6
Kohl’s
7
Home Depot
8
GameStop
9
Lowe’s
10
Costco
But which are the most popular retailers in Canada?
Canada’s top three Black Friday retailers follow suit with the rest of the world — albeit switching order. Rather than Walmart, it’s Best Buy that tops the list in Canada. Walmart falls in second place, followed by Amazon.
10 most commonly searched retailers for Black Friday in Canada
Most popular product categories targeted on Black Friday
With retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Media Markt topping the list for the most popular places to score a Black Friday bargain, is it any wonder that tech and electronics is the number one type of deal people are searching for?
As far as generic terms go, people are most interested in finding discounted TVs, laptops and phones. Outside of tech products, general fashion and home improvement products are also popular.
Most popular Black Friday product categories in Canada
Canada toed the Black Friday line, with tech products topping the list, along with general retail and fashion.
Most popular brands searched for Black Friday
Tech products topped the list in large part because people are most fervently searching for popular devices, including Nintendo, PlayStation and Apple.
Most popular products searched in Canada on Black Friday
Canada followed global trends, with the majority of high-volume Black Friday searches relating to tech products and brands. Specifically, the most popular tech products include the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Apple iPhone.
How has interest in Black Friday changed over time?
Interest in Black Friday has steadily increased for as long as the Internet has been around. Unfortunately, data from SEMrush doesn’t go back that far. Luckily, we have Google for that.
Looking at historical Google Trends data, which goes as far back as 2004, we can see online interest in the term itself peaked in November 2018.
How does this look in Canada?
One of the coolest parts about Google Trends is that you can get into the weeds of a topic to break down just where people were looking for Black Friday deals. In Canada, historically the top three provinces looking for Black Friday deals have been Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador (as of October 2019).
Which provinces are most interested in Black Friday sales?
Trending up! What people are searching for on Black Friday 2019
There’s no time like the present and no one that knows the present (or past or quite possibly future for that matter) like the omnipotent Google. Below is what people are searching for right now for Black Friday 2019.
What’s the most popular search in Canada for Black Friday in 2019?
Want a closer look? This is what those results look like in Canada in 2019.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is one of the busiest retail holidays, falling on the Friday following Thanksgiving. This year, Black Friday is 29 November 2019.
Black Friday past, present and future
Year
Thanksgiving (Thursday)
Black Friday
2014
November 27, 2014
November 28, 2014
2015
November 26, 2015
November 27, 2015
2016
November 24, 2016
November 25, 2016
2017
November 23, 2017
November 24, 2017
2018
November 22, 2018
November 23, 2018
2019
November 28, 2019
November 29, 2019
2020
November 26, 2020
November 27, 2020
2021
November 25, 2021
November 26, 2021
2022
November 24, 2022
November 25, 2022
2023
November 23, 2023
November 24, 2023
2024
November 28, 2024
November 29, 2024
How did it start? How much has it grown in popularity?
The Black Friday shopping event has its roots in Philadelphia, where police officers used it derogatorily to describe the chaotic shopping day that follows Thanksgiving, which was typically marred by crowds and shoplifters, according to History.com.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Black Friday found mainstream popularity as a day for the general public to find a good deal. While overall sales are up for Black Friday by and large, its popularity has dipped over the last few years, with retailers reporting drops in physical sales.
Online retailers are the big winners on Black Friday, resulting in the syphoning off of a subsequent sale day for online shopping called Cyber Monday, which happens the Monday following Black Friday.
Cyber Monday past, present and future
Year
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
2014
November 28, 2014
December 1, 2014
2015
November 27, 2015
November 30, 2015
2016
November 25, 2016
November 28, 2016
2017
November 24, 2017
November 27, 2017
2018
November 23, 2018
November 26, 2018
2019
November 29, 2019
December 2, 2019
2020
November 27, 2020
November 30, 2020
2021
November 26, 2021
November 29, 2021
2022
November 25, 2022
November 28, 2022
2023
November 24, 2023
November 27, 2023
2024
November 29, 2024
December 2, 2024
What are the other big shopping days?
Prime Day
Boxing Day
Singles’ Day
Methodology
Search data: We used SEMrush to identify the top 20 countries and historical trends. We used AHREFs to identify the current top 1,000 kws for each country in the top 20. Popular retailers, shopping categories and specific products were analysed in English. Throughout analysis assumptions were made about search intent. For example, search volume for ‘Media Markt’ was assumed to be for ‘Mediamarkt’.
Survey data: Survey results are from a nationally representative survey of 1,200 Canadian adults, commissioned by Finder and conducted by PureProfile in November 2019. Northwest Territories, Nanavut, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon were not included in the analysis due to not having enough respondents.
Nicole McKnight is the Canada PR Manager at Finder. Nicole completed her Honours Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) at McMaster University and holds a certification in Corporate Communications. You can contact her at nicole.mcknight@finder.com.
Not sure how much you’ll need to save for retirement? You’re not alone. New Finder research reveals one in five Canadians don’t know how much they’ll need for retirement.
Ever wondered how much a Starbucks tall latte costs around the world? And what does that say about the value of currency? Finder’s Starbucks Index 2019 delves into the data to find out.
Are we making poor decisions after drinking? It turns out that almost 1 in 3 Canadians admit to shopping under the influence.
Feedback
How likely would you be to recommend finder to a friend or colleague?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very UnlikelyExtremely Likely
Required
Thank you for your feedback.
Our goal is to create the best possible product, and your thoughts, ideas and suggestions play a major role in helping us identify opportunities to improve.
Advertiser Disclosure
finder.com is an independent comparison platform and information service that aims to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions. While we are independent, the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which finder.com receives compensation. We may receive compensation from our partners for placement of their products or services. We may also receive compensation if you click on certain links posted on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of product information, it doesn't influence our assessment of those products. Please don't interpret the order in which products appear on our Site as any endorsement or recommendation from us. finder.com compares a wide range of products, providers and services but we don't provide information on all available products, providers or services. Please appreciate that there may be other options available to you than the products, providers or services covered by our service.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
