
The awareness of Black Friday in Britain has gathered pace over the past few years, among both businesses and consumers alike.
Traditionally, Black Friday signalled the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US as the infamously wild commerce event, which is known to trigger arguments and brawls, follows on from Thanksgiving. However, UK giants like Tesco, John Lewis, Currys and Argos can all be found embarking on a discounting bonanza to rack up sales from deal-hungry seasonal shoppers. Someone in a solid place to know what consumers want on each day of the year is Claire Davenport, MD of deals website Vouchercodes.co.uk. So in time for Black Friday 2014 on 28 November, Real Business spoke her to find out how and why the day is winning over Brits. She noted that Black Friday in the US has been a big deal for over ten years, though it’s only been barely a fraction of that time that the UK has adopted it. “It’s only natural that Black Friday made it over the pond. Amazon coined the phrase here and it made sense: consumers have firmly settled in the money-saving mindset given the fact austere living is still on the agenda in double dip recession UK,” Davenport said. “I think retailers realise that customers here want a chance to take advantage of big sales and deals before Christmas – it’s an expensive occasion after all.”Read more on Black Friday:
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- Yodel prepares for Black Friday and Christmas rush with creation of 7,000 jobs
- How prepared are your brand ambassadors for peak season?
We’ve had huge demand for #BlackFriday and know some of you may have problems accessing our site. We’re doing everything we can to resolve this, and thank you for your patience. Posted by Tesco on Friday, 28 November 2014As Salmon’s CTO Glen Burson put it: “Black Friday’s surge in sales in November 2014 threw traditional British pre-Christmas shopping habits into disarray. Shoppers, lured to online retailers with significantly discounted flash promotions, spent an estimated £810m online in a single day ) almost 50 per cent more than industry experts had predicted.” Strictly speaking, the ethos of Black Friday isn’t contained to just one day. Some deals continue across the weekend, while Cyber Monday follows three days later and is generally expected to be the busiest online shopping day. Salmon’s data revealed that sales grew, but at a smaller rate.
Black Friday versus Cyber Monday: How British shoppers are set to behave
With that in mind, Black Friday 2015 is expected to set a new milestone for British ecommerce. “We believe that demand will start to surge before Friday 27 November as shoppers come online early to search for bargains,” added Burson.- Know roles and responsibilities
- Ensure systems are operational
- Communicate with each other
- React quickly to issues
- Prepare for shift handover
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