Related News
Black Friday now fixed into UK shopping calendar
Print Edition
HALLOWEEN and Mother’s Day have become staples of the UK shopping calendar. Now Black Friday looks as though it may be the next big retail import from the United States.
Shopping on the day after Thanksgiving is becoming a thing in Britain, too, thanks mainly to the marketing efforts of major retailers.
Online seller Amazon is widely perceived to have first introduced Black Friday deals to the UK in 2010. A steady slew of retailers joined the fray each year, with a significant jump in 2013, when the Asda supermarket chain, owned by Wal-Mart, embraced the event.
This year, it’s gotten even bigger and Black Friday looks to have cemented its place in the UK calendar. People are talking about the event and promotions are being aired across the media.
“It’s been building for a few years, a lot of retailers have planned their Black Friday strategies and consumers seem to be ready for it,” said Patrick O’Brien, retail analyst at Verdict Research.
The Friday after Thanksgiving has for decades been the biggest shopping day in the US as millions of Americans go in search of bargains and the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest. One of the most common origins of the day’s name is that US retailers traditionally turned a profit on Black Friday.
Given its link to Thanksgiving, it was a particularly US event. That is changing, though, primarily in the UK, which shares many of the retailing customs and traditions of the US, in a way that other European countries, such as France and Germany, don’t.
Promotions to pay off
According to Verdict, retailers’ heavy investment in Black Friday promotions looks set to pay off as awareness of the US retail event reaches an all-time high in the UK. In its online consumer survey of 10,000 UK shoppers, Verdict found that 47 percent of the UK’s shoppers say they will participate in the event. It also found that 61 percent of women expect to make a purchase.
Many of the UK’s leading retailing brand names are planning promotions tomorrow. Some, such as supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, are getting involved for the first time. Videogame seller Game is promising “stunning deals and offers that’ll be too hard to resist,” and is opening stores the moment the clocks strike midnight tomorrow.
According to a survey of firms that sell both online and in-store commissioned by Barclays, one of the country’s biggest banks, 65 percent of retailers are planning Black Friday promotions, and 69 percent expect the popularity of Black Friday promotions to gain traction in years ahead.
This is a big change in the UK’s shopping habits in the busiest time of the year. Usually in the UK, the day after Christmas is when retailers make the big promotions. Boxing Day, as it is known, is when your average turkey-stuffed Briton goes in search of bargains.
In these penny-pinched times following years of austerity — and the prospect of many more to come — it’s unsurprising that consumers are on the lookout for bargains in the run-up to Christmas.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
