With the arrival of Black Week and its climax on Black Friday on 28 November, Czech retail enters its most intense period of the year. The week of discounts seamlessly transitions into Advent shopping, which traditionally brings the highest weekend footfall and sales of the year. CBRE, the global leader in commercial real estate services that manages dozens of shopping and retail centres across the Czech Republic and authors the regular Shopping Centre Index, confirms that the combination of November promotions and the pre-Christmas season fundamentally shapes the performance of brick-and-mortar retail and its connection with online channels.
"This year, Singles' Day has made a more significant impact on the autumn calendar, quickly establishing itself in the Czech market and extending the period of increased demand even before Black Week itself. The trend across the market is expanding promotional assortments and longer campaign durations, while the omnichannel approach is strengthening - customers combine online inspiration with purchases in physical stores and vice versa. Overall, this brings a strong impulse to the entire market and creates a solid foundation for the year-end. Tenants similarly expect higher turnover than last year, thanks to better preparation, expanded offerings and longer campaign validity," comments Miriama Malewská, deputy head of shopping centre leasing at CBRE.
In the autumn shopping season, individual events play different roles. Singles' Day functions as a starting impulse - a shorter, predominantly online event that raises interest mainly in fashion, beauty and smaller electronics categories, activating purchases even before the main week of discounts. After Singles' Day comes Black Week, which peaks on Black Friday, bringing the most advantageous offers of the year across categories, with retailers betting on significant discounts even on expensive items and clearance of older collections.
Different dynamics across segments show that various categories have different seasonal peaks. "In fashion, Black Friday has long been strengthening and includes a wider range of discounted assortment, while Advent benefits from pre-Christmas appetite and emphasises Christmas and party collections. Footwear is bought less as gifts under the tree, so Black Friday is usually stronger than Advent - and this year retailers expect year-on-year growth. At the same time, the importance of Singles' Day is rapidly rising in both segments," describes Miriama Malewská.
From a shopping centre footfall perspective, Singles' Day represents the first clear trigger of the season, though its effect is currently more pronounced in online shopping. Footfall increases noticeably mainly during Black Week, starting from Monday and peaking on Black Friday - large centres typically record about 15% more visitors than on an average Friday of the year. "We expect this year's Christmas footfall at shopping centres to be approximately at last year's level. We're building on the trend we've observed in the second half of this year - customer sentiment is slightly positive and together with rising real household incomes, this allows us to look at the season with optimism," concludes Miriama Malewská.
