Why is this year’s Black Friday different from all other Black Fridays? The 2020 holiday season was, to use a buzzword, “unprecedented”: Big-box retailers opted for curbside pickup and e-comm pushes to slow the spread of Covid. Now, it’s 2021. Things have somewhat returned to normal (sort of?), but Black Friday will never be the same.

• For one, retail giants like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are keeping their doors closed this Thanksgiving once again.

“Black Friday has traditionally been the single big splash event that defines the holiday season. And I think we’re moving to a world where Black Friday becomes less and less relevant...a world where there is no single big splash shopping event, but rather a rolling season of deals,” Mike Black, VP of marketing at e-comm insights firm Profitero, told Retail Brew.

Early-bird special: Black Friday is changing shape for a few reasons. For one, consumers are shopping earlier in general. Back-to-school buying started “at least a month earlier than ever before,” Black said. And last year, Profitero saw more sales happening on Amazon before the Cyber 5 period than after.

That’s “magnified this year,” due to shipping delays and supply issues, Black explained.

• “Christmas decorations” was the No. 7 top search term on Amazon in the UK in September.
• 40% of consumers plan to do their holiday shopping earlier than last year, per Klarna’s survey on the season’s spending; 22% have already started.

Shoppers aren’t alone in tweaking their schedules, as retailers move the season earlier and earlier to capitalize on that $$$, Kearney’s Michael Brown told us.

• This year, Target will start its “Deals Days” on October 10 (through October 12). Amazon, meanwhile, began rolling out “Black Friday–worthy” discounts on Monday to get a headstart on the holidays.

“The impact of Black Friday has really been diminished over the last five years, as consumers are getting a lot of other big spending opportunities right around this timeframe,” Brown said.

Retailers, too, “don’t want to be as reliant on Black Friday,” Black noted.

Click here to read more on why shoppers might be less loyal this year, and why retailers shouldn’t sleep on the store.—JG

It’s all about crypto, man. PacSun is now accepting cryptocurrency as an official form of payment under a new partnership with BitPay.

• PacSun’s website and mobile app will support 11 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin, along with several crypto wallets and exchanges.

Digital first: PacSun clearly wants to keep up with its young shoppers, as Gen Z and millennials increasingly value and invest in cryptocurrencies. (Nearly 50% of millennials own cryptocurrency, according to a study from Piplsay.)

“It’s very much a community and relevancy play. It is the future of finance,” Brie Olson, president at PacSun, told Retail Brew.

The crypto retail market is projected to grow to $32.2 billion by 2027, up from $325 million in 2021, according to Gaurav Joshi, director of retail and supply chain practices at AArete, a global management consultancy.

• PacSun anticipates its peers will follow suit within the next three to nine months.

Zoom out: Despite crypto’s growing acceptance among millennials and Gen Z, concerns around security and price volatility remain. Hemal Nagarsheth, associate partner of financial services at Kearney, told Retail Brew that new partnerships with banks are improving consumer confidence. Retailers can also drive awareness, he added.

• PacSun is rolling out curated content across Instagram and TikTok to amplify the newest payment feature.

Research shows that although only 14% of Americans are currently using cryptocurrency, more than 20% that have not used it are likely to within the next year. “Once that is combined with acceptability by the big brands, it will allow cryptocurrency to be used everywhere,” Joshi said.—JS

Resale has been on a roll lately with more and more retailers jumping on board. Now, Adidas is entering the fray through a partnership with ThredUp.

To start, the program is available to members via Adidas’s Creators Club app: Customers can send worn products to be reused or resold and receive points and Adidas vouchers in return.

• Anything that goes unsold will be sent to ThredUp’s network of partners that reuse textiles.
• The program, called Choose to Give Back, will be made more widely available online and in US stores early next year.

Built to last: Purchasing a used item of clothing can reduce its carbon footprint by 82%, Pooja Sethi, SVP and general manager of resale-as-a-service at ThredUp, told Retail Brew.

• Adidas issued new sustainability goals earlier this year, which includes reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

“This supports a circular model for fashion by extending the life cycle of clothing,“ Sethi told us. “The more retailers and brands participate in the resale ecosystem, the greater the impact will be.“

According to ThredUp’s 2021 Resale Report, 34% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with a brand that offers secondhand alongside new items. ThredUp believes Adidas can increase brand loyalty and integrate even more circularity using resale, Sethi said.

Zoom out: ThredUp continues to capitalize on the shift to resale, recently partnering with Madewell to sell used jeans. By 2025, the secondhand market is expected to double from $36 billion this year to $77 billion.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

Waste management: Fashion journalist Aja Barber talks about fighting hyper-consumerism, as Americans’ thrown-away clothes bombard poorer countries like Ghana. (Vox)

Return to owner: The growth of online sales has led to the growth of costly returns. (The Atlantic)

Time crunch: Ultra-fast grocery delivery promises to benefit cities’ communities, but does it deliver? (Vice)

Did you hear that Amazon will pay 100% of the college tuition for all of its 750,000 US hourly employees who choose to hit the books?

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Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

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Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. Kellogg is turning Wendy’s iconic frosty milkshake into a breakfast cereal.
2. Ippudo, the famed ramen restaurant, will sell its broth in a can.
3. Lego will release a 9,090-piece set of the Titanic—the company’s largest model of the ship.
4. Hershey’s is teaming up with Johnny Rockets for chocolate-covered onion rings.

Keep reading for the answer.