As American families prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving by feasting on turkey
and watching televised parades, retailers on both sides of the Atlantic are
also gearing up for the biggest day of sales of the year. Predictions on
overall spend range from £1 billion to £5 billion across Black Friday and Cyber
Monday.
The consumer frenzy around Black Friday has been well documented in the
press in recent years, with the all too familiar images of long queues, and the
ruthless dash to find a bargain. But with a recent poll released by
money-saving marketplace Flubit revealing that 9 in 10 people are planning to
avoid the in-store sales this year, could this signify the end of the most
chaotic shopping day of the year?
Figures from 2015 suggest not, with sales on Black Friday topping £1
billion for the first time ever, despite many retailers reporting reduced footfall
compared to 2014. It appears that more and more consumers are choosing to make
the most of the online deals, taking the chaos from the physical to the digital
storefront. This behaviour change led to many major UK retail sites crashing
last year as they were unable to deal with the huge spike in demand. With the
biggest discounts available on electronic goods, it is no surprise that sites
like Currys, PC World and Argos were among the first to suffer as shoppers
sought out Black Friday
camera, TV and laptop deals.
Whilst retailers are predicting more record-breaking sales this year, it
is unclear if the slowdown in consumer confidence will affect UK spending
following June’s vote to leave to EU. Figures released by YouGov/Cebr
Consumer Confidence Index suggest that whilst some ground has been recovered
after a marked decrease following the referendum, UK consumers are proceeding
cautiously as job security and household finances have decreased since August.
It’s likely that this will continue as we approach March 2017, when
Theresa May has confirmed she will trigger Article 50. In the meantime though,
it does look like UK consumers are choosing to spend rather than save, with
data from market research institute GfK revealing that the Saving
Index dropped 16 points in August.
At this point in time, it seems the only certainty is that these are
uncertain times for the British economy. Given the reports of strong consumer
confidence, or perhaps the fear of an impending hike
in the cost of living, it is likely that Black Friday and Cyber Monday
sales will surpass 2015 spending figures. However, with each Brexit
announcement creating fresh turbulence in the value of the pounds, this could
be the last ‘sure thing’ British retailers can enjoy for some time.
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