Retailers bet big on Black Friday and Xmas during tough times

90% of retailers are pinning their hopes for success over the next 12 months on Black Friday and Christmas, according to research from Ometria.

The company surveyed 4,006 UK and US consumers and 306 retail marketers.

It also found that 33% of Brits do not plan to shop Black Friday deals this year. Whilst 26% of shoppers overall and a third in the US are planning to spend less in 2020 when compared to 2019.

Meanwhile, only a quarter definitely plan to visit a physical store, whilst 45% don’t intend to shop in-store at all.

Also of interest: Retail Assist releases Black Friday 2020 research

Ivan Mazour, CEO and Founder, Ometria, says: “Black Friday will, along with the rest of the retail landscape, be very different this year. What worked pre-Covid will not work now - and discounts alone will certainly not be a big enough driver to get customers engaged.”

“Despite this, retailers are clearly placing a huge amount of pressure on Black Friday, Christmas and other significant shopping dates to boost sales during tough trading conditions.”

“But if retailers are planning on just repeating what they did last year, their hopes for success are likely to be at best short lived and at worst completely unfounded. Retailers must take a smart and customer-centric approach in order to cut through the noise in what will be a high stakes battle for customer spend.”

“It’s clear that brave, bold and crucially, long-term decision making is required to influence the survival of the Great British high street and our beloved retailers - not over-reliance on American mass discounting holidays.”

Retailers, he concludes, must focus on operational, technological and cultural change; how are they operating both logistically and ethically; are they consumer-orientated; do they have the technology to enable change?