Black Friday was predicted to be huge in the UK this year – so much so we gave away a free Black Friday Survival Guide to you all with learnings from last year and how you can profit on the phenomenon.
Since then, some of last year’s big names, Asda and Argos have been less than enthusiastic about Black Friday 2015, with Asda pulling out completely.
Their reasoning?
The scenes of chaos in their stores last year.
“This year our customers have told us loud and clear they don’t want to be held hostage to a day or two of sales,” said Andy Clarke, CEO of Asda.
Last week Sky News reported police warnings over Black Friday security. Deputy chief constable, Sue Fish of the NPCC’s Business and Retail Crime unit said police will only intervene if necessary.
Deploying officers to deal with Black Friday diverts valuable resources from other areas of policing.
And it seems the UK public as a whole seem to be less excited about Black Friday this year compared to last year. According to research firm Verdict Retail, just 37% of British consumers plan to shop in this year’s sales compared to 47% in 2014.
So what does all this mean for the whole Black Friday phenomenon in the UK?
Since its introduction to the UK five years ago by Amazon, shoppers only took interest properly last year – rather chaotically.
And now a year later, it seems the mania of 2014 has put a lot of people off, and so they might just stick to online shopping.
Verdict Retail found that of the 37% of shoppers interested in Black Friday this year, 65% of them said they are only prepared to shop online.
Electricals retailer Currys is encouraging people to shop online this Black Friday. Below is a snippet of their Black Friday landing page. Customers can register their interest by email, buy online on the day and pick up from store, thus avoiding disappointment and avoiding shopper disputes in their stores.
However having a sale as big as Black Friday online can take its toll as well. Last year, several brands like Argos and John Lewis saw their servers take a hit by the copious amount of website traffic coming their way.
There’s the issue with deliveries for all the orders that will be made online. Strategy Director at Fitch Aaron Shields thinks only Amazon-like retailers will come out on top as stores feel the pressure from online shoppers for timely deliveries and returns (source: Independant).
Tesco are already warning their customers about late deliveries – giving shoppers a 5-7 day waiting period:
Research firm Salmon, predicts Black Friday 2015 will lead to the UK’s first £1bn online shopping day, putting even more pressure on retailers to up their online game.
However as worried as brands are about Black Friday, it’s not going away just yet. Consumers have had a taste of extreme pre-Christmas bargain shopping, and it could take a while for them to forget– much to the detriment of retailers, who rely on jacking up prices during the Christmas shopping period, and who are still expected to have Boxing Day and January Sales.
What do you think about Black Friday Sales? Will your brand be participating next Friday (27th Nov)?
If you are and feel unprepared, we can still help. We’ll set up live bidding on Google search ads and run pre Black Friday Social Media ads and email campaigns to drum up business. Call us now: 01483 424460
Join the conversation on Twitter @pulldigital, LinkedIn or Facebook
Posted 20 November 2015 by