Shopfloor FOCUS: BLACK FRIDAY
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Make the golden quarter count It’ll be here before you know it! With Black Friday and Christmas fast
approaching, Gekko’s Callum Puffet, Marketing Executive, looks at how retailers can prepare for the all-important peak trading season.
It wasn’t that long ago that Black Friday meant a single, frantic day of in-store queues and website crashes. Today, the reality of peak trading looks very different. We are now navigating a drawn-out “Golden Quarter,” where the build-up begins long before the winter coats even come out of the wardrobe. In fact, research from Barclays reveals that the majority of shoppers now start their deal hunting as early as October. And as Retail Week reports, those early promotional revenue spikes routinely hit almost two weeks prior to the main event. Yet, even with this extended timeline, the core weekend itself hasn’t lost its bite. Black Friday remains the undisputed, highest-volume transaction day of the year, driving retail volumes well above the daily average. The sheer scale of what’s at stake is hard to ignore. Barclays projects that UK consumers will spend over £10 billion over the Black Friday weekend alone. Bargain hunting is a priority across the board, particularly for Gen Z shoppers who are highly engaged with the sales cycle this
season. Surprisingly, there is also a genuine sense of spending optimism. Deloitte research shows that nearly a third of UK consumers plan to increase their spending this Christmas compared to last year, comfortably outpacing the European average. But retailers cannot afford to be complacent. We are operating in a distinctly tricky economic climate. While the recent change in government and proposed policies aimed at boosting disposable income, like raising the minimum wage and public sector salaries, offer some hope for increased consumer spending, this is heavily counterbalanced by reality. Shoppers are anxious about looming tax increases, and the lingering cost-of-living crisis means they are going to be fiercely protective of their discretionary budgets.
Overcoming the Pricing Trust Deficit Consumer scepticism currently stands as the most significant barrier to
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