Conclusion. We meticulously went through Black Friday deals to see how major retailers (Best Buy, Target, Walmart) were using Apple products to drive in-store and online traffic and found discounts ranging between 6%-36%. Apple also weighed in on Black Friday with their once a year “sale” (gift card) offering of 5-15% savings, inline with Apple’s 2016 Black Friday promo. Not surprising, retailers are taking a loss on many Apple products today and Monday (typically retailers have an average 15% margin on Apple products) to drive traffic and build brand.
iPhone X missing in action. While iPhone 8 is being discounted, we saw no discounting of iPhone X, which remains in tight supply.
Target is most aggressive. Target is offering the most aggressive discounts with their $250 iPhone 8 gift card offer yielding an average savings of 31%, along with other discounts including Watch Series 1 of 20% and iPad of 17%. Best Buy was second most aggressive, discounting iPad by an average of 21%, iPhone’s (excluding iPhone X) by 19%, Watch by 19%, and Macs by 11%. Apple not surprising was third with an average “savings” (gift card) on iPads of 12%, Watches of 10%, Macs of 9%, and iPhones (excluding iPhone X) of 7%. Walmart’s Black Friday Apple discounts were somewhere between confusing and misleading. More below.
Walmart’s mystery Apple deals. At first glance, Walmart seemed to be most aggressive with Apple products on Black Friday, leading with an iPhone SE for $99 ($349 retail) on a Walmart Family Mobile Plan and a $300 Walmart gift card for in-store only on select iPhones. We spoke to 2 Walmart stores to get details on the $300 offer, and were told it was for only a fractional number of contracts that quickly got purchased Thanksgiving night. Fractional number of contracts for the ad below feels misleading. What also feels misleading was the advertised iPhone 7 savings of $49 when it fact it was $49 over retail price, and a $250 savings on an iPad Mini when the actual savings was $50. Pull it together Walmart.
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