Dull Black Friday has had its day, says ParcelHero boss

Black Friday has run its course in the UK, according to e-commerce delivery specialist ParcelHero.

“In the early years stores such as Tesco and Asda were forced to lock their doors, such was the demand; while more recently it has grown online at 12% annually. This year we’re seeing some big predictions for record Black Friday profits, but we’ve been analysing data from many sources and we are not so optimistic,” says ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks.

Also of interest: Black Friday and Christmas 'unlikely to turn UK online retail's fortunes around'

In 2018 Black Friday made a record £2.4 billion, including online sales of £1.4 billion. But while online sales were up a - slightly disappointing - 7% in comparison to 2017, town centre store sales were down 7%. “This year we believe disillusioned online shoppers will join High Street shoppers in losing interest in Black Friday, leading to no overall growth for the first time in its barnstorming ten-year history,” says Jinks.

He argues that online shoppers now know sites are pacing their offers over not just the day or the weekend, or even the whole week. Endless rolling offers take away from the need of logging on this Friday and zeroing in on some genuinely great bargains. Black Friday has therefore become a dull month of stock clearance.

“Sadly, we don’t believe there will be a resurgence in High Street spending to compensate. While some High Street stores are still climbing on the Black Friday bandwagon, beauty store Deciem is shutting up shop entirely on Friday. In a year in which even the major chains alone have closed around 6,000 stores, with Mothercare set to follow, no one’s expecting a Black Friday boom,” Jinks comments.

He does, however, note that his company is already seeing around 6% more home deliveries than this time last year. “People are clearly still ordering and sending presents when they see a genuine bargain, and we’re certainly expecting a healthy overall peak Christmas season; it’s just besieged Black Friday that will see zero growth,” Jinks concludes.