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CHRISTMAS

This is how big Black Friday has become in Norway

Norwegians set a Black Friday spending record in 2015 and if Google search trends are any indication, a new record is likely this year.

This is how big Black Friday has become in Norway
Shoppers at last year's Black Friday sale at the Norwegian Outlet in Akershus. Photo: Jon Olav Nesvold / NTB scanpix
Norwegian shoppers have fully embraced Black Friday, the super sales event that marks the beginning of the Christmas consumer season. 
 
The trend started in the United States, where Black Friday is held the day after Thanksgiving. The spending frenzy earned its name as the day that allowed retailers to operate at a profit (“in the black”  as opposed to “in the red”). 
 
Despite its American roots, Black Friday has quickly become Norway’s most important shopping day. Norwegians pulled out their credit and debit cards a full 7.6 million times on Black Friday last year, spending over 3.1 billion kroner. 
 
That set a new spending record for the day, beating the 2014 Black Friday results by 19.5 percent according to figures from Nets and BankAxept. 
 
According to research done by online savings portal CupoNation, Norwegians’ interest in Black Friday has exploded in just a few short years. 
 
“Not so many years ago, almost no one in Norway knew about the American shopping tradition Black Friday. But over the last couple of years, more and more stores, both online and ‘in the real world’, have started to provide discounts on this specific day in November,” Pål Kaalaas, the company’s digital marketing manager for Norway, told The Local. 
 
The rapid increase in interest is reflected by Norwegians’ Google searches for Black Friday info and deals. On Google's 0-100 search interest scale, Black Friday related searches went from just four in 2010 to 100 in November 2015, when there were over 200,000 Norwegian Google searches for Black Friday. 
 
Image: CupoNation
Image: CupoNation
 
The unofficial holiday has even caught up on another imported American tradition, Halloween. According to CupoNation’s research of Google searches, Black Friday has quickly gained on Halloween over the past five years and now threatens to overtake it in terms of online interest.
 
Image: CupoNation
Image: CupoNation
 
And although there are still a handful of days before the consumer madness begins, Google results show that many shoppers in Norway are already plotting their spending. 
 
Image: CupoNation
Image: CupoNation
 
As a whole, Norwegians are expected to increase their Christmas spending by four percent over last year according to projects from the Enterprise Federation of Norway (Virke).

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SHOPPING

Danish stores to remove MobilePay from payment options

Over 500 shops in Denmark will no longer offer the popular app MobilePay as a payment option after the platform ordered merchants to purchase new hardware.

Danish stores to remove MobilePay from payment options

The Dagrofa corporation, which owns chains including the Meny and Spar supermarkets, has announced it will remove MobilePay as a payment option in its stores, business media Finans reports.

The decision could impact less than 1 percent of payments in the store which are currently made using MobilePay, the company said.

READ ALSO: 17 essential phone apps to make your life in Denmark easier

“The primary reason is that MobilePay will from now on demand a technical setup for the payment system in stores and with the investment that will neee, we have concluded that’s not the way we want to go,” Dagrofa’s head of communications Morten Vestberg told Finans.

Dagrofa owns the Let-Køb and Min Købmand convenience store chains in addition to Meny and Spar.

The decision will mean MobilePay is removed from some 530 stores altogether, although individual stores may choose to retain the payment app.

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