The noise around Black Friday (28th November) is greater
than ever this year and we understand that the big retailers are poised to
fight for their share of the promotional spend just weeks before Christmas.
Indeed, hot on the heels of Black Friday is Sofa Sunday and Cyber Monday! Is
this all a great idea and how useful is it for confectionery retailers?
A recent piece of research from Verdict (October 2014)
suggests that 47% of shoppers intend to purchase a promotion on Black Friday.
This is certainly skewed towards the younger shopper with 56% of 15-24 year
olds having that intention, 59% of 25-34 year olds and just 28% of those over
65 years.
The idea has come from the USA and seems set to stay on British
soil, growing in impact year after year. Synics point out that retailers are
simply eroding their margins by promoting at a time when sales are high anyway
(Verdict Research states that £90.7bn is set to be spent on Christmas related
items this year, up 2.6% from 2013). The problem is, when your competitor jumps
in with a Black Friday promotion, you feel compelled to swiftly follow.
Love it or loathe it, Black Friday is here to stay. Is it
relevant to confectionery retailers? Well the confectionery retail market is
certainly much more fragmented and so it probably depends on your route to
market (high street or online) and your customer profile. It is likely that
there will be more noise online where a younger audience might be busier and
competition is more widespread. If you feel like you’ve missed out on Black
Friday, how about Cyber Monday instead?! For high street and local retailers, try
to understand what is happening on a local level. You might want to steal the
march and use it as a promotional event to get feet through the door or you
might prefer to focus on keeping your margins intact and working as hard as
possible on your customer service.
However you decide to react to Black Friday, be sure to see
some silly deals on offer as the country winds up for the Christmas frenzy.
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