05/12/2018
Black Friday was the real deal this year!
Black Friday is THE most important day for almost every retailer in B2C segment in the UK and worldwide. On this day each year there is a flood of customers pouring into the both brick and mortar and the online stores and the people are on a real shopping frenzy!
It is a great opportunity that every successful retailer seizes to create traction through promotions and discounts that put everything on an entirely different level. The end results are always the same – increased sales, increased profitability, and a lot of data to process after everything is finished.
This year was no different than the previous ones. There was a huge crowd anywhere you look and people were shopping for literally everything. The crowds were huge and the shopping was a really different experience than on the regular days of the year. At least for those who decided to shop in brick and mortar stores…
There were others, who took a different approach (and there is more and more of those every year), and decided to face the shopping spree in a more comfortable way – from their homes. These online shoppers definitely didn’t have to bother with finding a parking lot, or with getting where they wanted to go. Everything they needed was just one click away!
This is the trend in the past few years – people tend to resort to online shopping more and more and avoid all the fuss and the stress of battling through the crowd and wasting their time and energy while not being even certain whether what they are looking for is still in stock.
Instead, they make all the purchases online and get their goods delivered directly to their doorstep. Many find it to be an ideal way to deal with the things. On the other hand, there are a lot of those who still prefer the standard way of shopping.
How did the people shop on Black Friday?
This year, the trends were pretty interesting. During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, the total turnaround was an incredible GBP 7 billion. It is significant to note that the physical stores saw an actual drop of sales of 8% compared to the same period last year, despite the fact that the sales made in 2018 were larger than the year before. These figures stand for the UK only.
All of the online retailers and especially marketplaces saw the record sales at the same time, and Amazon had the best day ever in the UK during the Black Friday event of 2018.
Conclusion
The latest trends clearly show that the customers are heavily shifting towards the online sources, even during the most important days of the year such a Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The ability to save time, avoid crowds and get their orders delivered directly to their doorstep obviously make a lot of difference, and with the rising trust in online retailers this trend will only pick up the speed.
In the very near future we could easily witness one of the most important shifts in trade channels that could have a huge impact on the entire country.