Photo courtesy of David Holt, London November 2017 under CC BY 2.0
While the Black Friday hype consistently developed since Monday throughout the weekend shopping holiday in the US, it was completely a different story in the UK. There were no queues waiting for stores to open up, no trampling and no chaotic entrance unlike three years ago. Although card transactions have risen by 8% from last year (based on Barclaycard data), there were fewer shoppers seen in the high street and major retail outlets. Let us thresh out some insights from conversations around the UK version of the event.
It Was a Hit Online
The department store chain John Lewis said that they had their busiest ever hour of online transactions. Their online store even crashed for a few moments after matching early Black Friday deals of their competitors. According to Dino Rocos, John Lewis' operations director, online sales at johnlewis.com overnight up to Black Friday exceeded their expectations. Argos has seen 2 million traffic four hours after announcing Black Friday deals.
Katie Ward of Vouchercloud said that they discovered a trend of staying up late and waking up earlier on Black Fridays. This year has seen online traffic increase by 40% from last year and 300% more than the typical day, with the peak of spending seen between 6 am - 7 am.
Black Friday Didn’t Pick on the High Street and Retail Store Outlets
Despite the online shopping frenzy, John Lewis only had twelve bargain hunters outside of their store shortly before they opened. Currys PC World on Oxford Street opened its doors at 7 AM, but only one shopper was waiting (his purchase was pre-ordered). Take note that the week before fashion and electronics chains already started discounting items already and this may have accounted for the 8% decrease in the number of visitors by the mid-afternoon. Diane Wehrle or Springboard even called it mid-grey week instead, accounting for the apparent distribution of consumers budget and the likely economic concerns relating to Brexit. What does this tell us? People are being more cautious about spending on stuff and focusing on what will give their money more value.
Who Ignored Black Friday and Why?
On the other hand, many supermarkets either have said no to the event or had very few deals. Marks and Spencer opted out of the event. BBC news said that Harrods department store thought that the event "cheapens the brand" and have ignored it. Jodie Jones, the style editor of Primark, says that Black Friday is ...so last year. She said that savvy shoppers know where to get the deals regardless of the day. In fact, they have seven amazing outfits for women and not one of them will cost more than £25. For Dacia, great value is for life, not just on Black Friday.
Brits - The Self-Conscious Shoppers
In a research by Harris Interactive on how Britons are responding to Black Friday shows that 40% surveyed said they would not participate but 73% said they would consider responding to ads that align with their buying preferences. Not only does this reflect how British consumers are becoming more tech savvy but also shows their culture regarding spending. That being said, Black Friday will have yet to take off in the UK like it did in the US. Perhaps marketers will have to experiment with a more personalised approach to promote Black Friday in the UK.
A research made by Dacia, a car manufacturer, (who by the way, didn’t also join the Black Friday madness) says that 63% of shoppers think that the shopping holiday was borne out of a marketing ploy and 3 of 5 refuse to fall for it. Dacia’s spokesperson summarises that “Savvy Brits may love a bargain, but too much of a good thing is just as likely to get our guard up as it is to open up our wallet. Rather than placing stock in attention-grabbing price-drops, we prefer to maintain great value all year round.” Brits are still in doubt about generous discounts and place an important consideration when it comes brand trustworthiness.
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