The tills have been cashed up and the early results are in.
Despite low-key expectations, Black Friday was a retail success, at least when looking at the top-line figures.
Both sides seem to have learned from the frenzied shopping seen in previous years: Customers have learnt that Friday doesn’t actually mean Friday, it means at least the whole weekend, if not longer - so they can spend their money more wisely, resulting in a much calmer atmosphere for everyone.
Retailers are getting cannier too: Gone are the huge, blanket discounts.
instead we have seen more traditional ‘up to’ offers, tempting customers in store only to find limited promotions, often stacked with terms and conditions.
Yet sales were still strong so customers were willing to spend anyway.
This will be of great relief to retailers who desperately need to recode customers to buy without huge reductions and halt the relentless discounting we’ve seen for a while.
Footfall on the High Street has been estimated to be 3.6% down, but Visa estimates that overall spend was up 8% when online sales are taken consideration - 11% up on 2016.
‘Savvy’ shoppers played the field by taking their time and hunting around for the best deals on their mobile phones and tablets so the overall result is telling and retailers must take note: Good retail needs to be good etail or you’ll get left behind.
Good ecommerce requires planning a long way in advance.
You have to build traffic levels over the course of the year and then, unlike retail, have a fulfilment service that can cope with the sudden increase in demand.
Black Friday presents an enormous opportunity to acquire customers but nothing is more off-putting for them than having a poor service experience, which can see them lost forever.
Chris Thomas
CEO & Founder – Apex Ecommerce
Tel: 0121 439 0750
Email: b3@apex-ecommerce.co.uk
For more information about Apex Ecommerce click here
