Playing to your strengths Shopfloor
FOCUS: BLACK FRIDAY & CHRISTMAS
“Can Black Friday survive a cost-of-living crisis? The chances are that it will absolutely thrive on it.” Paul Laville from T21 Group discusses how indies can provide true extra value for their customers during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year.
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It’s been a decade or so since Black Friday first launched itself across the Atlantic and landed in the UK’s calendar of retail events. Despite some initial fires of disruption and sermons of refusal from non-believers, Black Friday quickly established itself with a strong opening act, pulling in shoppers so hungry for a discount that ordinary people braved a media-hyped theatre of riotous crowds and violence, all for the chance to bag a new flat-screen telly for the price of a toaster! Together with its good friend Cyber Monday, Black Friday returned year after year, a persistent black hole rising to consume the whole of November. Now it’s far more than just a warm-up act for peak trading. For many businesses it’s become the main event itself, with more traditional end-of-year performances such as Christmas and New Year sales playing to thinner rounds of applause than they enjoyed in their glory days.
Retailers that continue to see the most success during Black Friday Calendar Month (or BFCM for short) are those that are able to successfully integrate their online and in-store shopping experiences. This creates a seamless journey designed to gain the most value from whatever approach their customers prefer, enabling the fevered thumb-swipes of the discount-obsessed to own their purchasing decisions whether or not they would prefer to shop from their armchairs or fight for a parking space in town. It’s an important point to make. In 2020, unfazed by a global pandemic and various rules about staying at home and visiting a shop that may or may not be selling essential goods, Black Friday ruled supreme. According to a recent report by Fly High Media, there were 400 million online sessions during Black Friday in the UK – of which 74 per cent were mobile sessions. In 2022, the number of online sessions reduced slightly; however, mobile sessions had increased to 78 per cent of that number. Sure, many of those mobile sessions might well have been sucked in by the online giants who created this black hole in the first place, but footfall in stores increased too. Compared to Black Friday 2021, footfall during the same period last year was up by seven per cent in retail parks and more than double that in shopping centres. Footfall on the high street was up too, by 11.3 per cent.
But can Black Friday survive a cost-of-living crisis though? The chances are that it will absolutely thrive on it. So what can independents do to make the most of it? Can your business withstand the crushing gravity of high volume discounting, and if so, can you get the stock? You’ll know the answer to those questions better than I do, but whilst you ponder this and ready your bunting, I’ll ask you to not neglect the online journey, because it is super-important to make
In 2022, footfall in stores increased around Black Friday, up by seven per cent in retail parks compared to 2021.
this aspect of Black Friday shopping as frictionless as possible if you want to gain the benefit of it. The split between online and in- store remains in favour of the former – and it’s growing. There’s no secret magic involved in creating a slick, mobile- friendly website that looks and performs as though it was designed by the freelance ghost of Steve Jobs himself. It doesn’t cost as much as it used to and with a little thought, some investigation into your analytics and a dash of creativity, you can easily create something that looks and performs better than the big corporate sites. Integrating your socials, generating buzz from your TikToks and reels and investing the bigger share of cash into your SEO will pull customers towards. And don’t forget your strengths. What is it that your business can do better than anyone else? How do you go the extra mile for your customers and show them that buying from you is better? Put it out there – online and in-store. The blinding light of supreme discounting may attract new pilgrims, but the extra value you can show to more people during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year can help you keep customers for life if you do it right.
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