Black Friday: What to expect as merchants prepare for the UK's first ever £1bn shopping day
This year’s Black Friday, a growing UK shopping phenomenon imported from the US, is happening later this month and is predicted to be the biggest one yet. With retail analysts suggesting that online UK sales could hit £1bn on that day alone, UK sellers are preparing for consumer spending like they’ve not seen before.
Last year in the UK, online spending hit an estimated £810m on Black Friday as consumers were successfully lured in by retailers that significantly discounted their products. This unexpected purchasing shift caught many retailers off-guard and exposed those that were unprepared. The event highlighted nationally that online merchants should devote just as much time to optimizing their digital commerce experience as they do their brick-and-mortar stores. The companies most likely to come out on top started planning many months ago. As consumers put the finishing touches on their shopping lists this year, they can expect more -- and will get more -- from their shopping experiences this Black Friday:
More Mobile. More and more online merchants are optimizing the shopping experience for mobile users. According to Monetate, nearly 31 percent of traffic to retail sites was coming from tablets and 25 percent coming from smartphones during the final quarter of 2014. With a growing shift to mobile, consumers will see more branded manufacturers catering to their mobile shopping habits with a responsive design that provides an optimal experience that’s effective and continuous from smartphone to tablet to desktop and back again.
More global. The emergence of a global marketplace has never been more appealing for consumers. The single biggest online shopping day in 2014 was 11th of November, when Chinese shoppers spent a staggering $9.3 billion on Singles Day. This new world record put a spotlight on the global online shopping opportunity and the importance of cross-border commerce. As the retail world becomes more connected, digital marketers’ promotional schedules are now a melting pot of global holidays that once were defined by physical borders. Today, European shoppers expect promotions during the U.S.’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday while American shoppers seek deals on China’s Singles Day. We fully expect the boundaries between international online holidays to blur and accelerate with each passing season.
More compelling deals. Under pressure from discounters and marketplaces around Black Friday deals, merchants -- even those with strict pricing policies -- are competing more aggressively on price. This trend is continuing in 2015, as customers come to expect compelling “flash sales”, deeper markdowns and other limited-time offers more often, and earlier than ever before.
More personalized. As consumer expectations around convenience, quality and personalization rise, "good" shopping experiences are no longer good enough. Even something as simple as page load times can impact buyers’ decisions. Research by Akamai notes that half of shoppers will go to another site to accomplish their task and nearly a quarter won’t return to a "problem" site when a page loads slowly or stalls altogether.
On 27th November, consumers can expect ecommerce sites to provide rich, satisfying customer experiences across devices, browsers, platforms and networks. And for merchants that fail to deliver on this promise? They risk jeopardizing both their Black Friday sales and future revenue sources.
Image Credit: Christos Georghiou / Shutterstock
Marco Vergani is Vice President and General Manager of Europe at Digital River, a leading global provider of Commerce-as-a-Service solutions. Based in Digital River’s London office, Marco has led customer-focused international sales operations for more than 25 years.