UK Black Friday sales strong online but delivery test awaits

UK online retail sales growth on Black Friday weighed in at +38% this year, with the full Black Friday week (defined as 23rd-30th November) seeing growth of 30%.

That’s according to research by the IMRG, based on the daily online sales performance of 102 UK retailers.

The weekly figure was below IMRG’s original forecast of 35-45%.

It is likely that the national coronavirus lockdown in England pulled sales volumes forward to a degree, with the first three weeks of November all securing growth rates in the 56-61% range.

Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director, IMRG, says: “Generally speaking, the patterns of demand we’ve seen across the whole year were maintained during the Black Friday peak, with home and garden the strongest category.”

“In fact, the home and garden participant with the lowest online sales growth across the full eight day week still secured a higher rate of growth than any other participant from any other category.”

“With all that additional traffic to sites, we might have expected them to buckle under the strain a bit more but actually they seemed to hold up quite well.”

The operational focus is now very much on delivery. Carriers have had to deal with huge volumes for most of the year, but the week following the Black Friday weekend is when it reaches a peak.

“Things seem to be holding up ok at the moment; if they get through the next few weeks without significant disruption to customer deliveries it will be a testament to their planning and execution,” Mulcahy adds.