South Korean Consumers’ Experiences and Underlying Shopping Mechanism of Black Friday

Abstract

Purpose: Black Friday is a globally used as a promotion event. A lot of South Korean retailers also have used it as their promotion concepts. But South Korean Consumers’ response to Black Friday has never been investigated academically. This study examined Black Friday shopping of South Korean consumers, including experiences, perceptions, motives and shopping mechanism. Research design, data and methodology: To verify the purposes of this research, a survey was conducted with 462 participants. This study analyzed descriptive features of experiences, perceptions and motives and developed and tested the model of shopping mechanism. Results: South Korean consumers perceive Black Friday as one of the credible marketing tactics offering a big price discount. They have generally positive perceptions and shopping experiences toward Black Friday. The key motive of Black Friday shopping is for saving cost. In addition, for South Korean consumers, perceived deal value, perceived innovativeness, saving cost motive and fun motive are important antecedents of shopping on Black Friday, and attitude toward Black Friday plays a mediating role between antecedents and shopping behavior. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide practical and theoretical insight to understand the impact of Black Friday in South Korea.