Black Friday is a white knight
[Re: UK retail sales rebound following growth in all areas except food shops, Nov 18]
Last week’s ONS statistics may have “rebounded slightly” but the outlook is still disappointing.
While Springboard predicted that Black Friday footfall will be up 12.8 per cent on Black Friday last year, retailers are bracing themselves for a quieter December, as struggling families focus on tighter budgets. Value is driving consumer behaviour this year. Many consumers will be looking to those special offers at events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday to stretch their spending as far as they can while shopping
for Christmas. The retailers that meet this demand will find ways of connecting with their customers, in a way that makes sense for their brand. Whether offering personalised discounts and offers at mainstream brands, or nurturing the exclusivity of a more luxury brand, the key will be about consolidating the loyalty of core customers during this turbulent period.
But it doesn’t all have to be bad news this Christmas. In times of uncertainty, retailers’ number one priority should be gaining a 360-degree view of customer behaviour. This relies on using hybrid or cloud native technologies to build up data-driven insights on changing customer behaviour, helping tailor and personalise the shopping experience for customers – wherever they choose to shop.
Martin Pateman-Lewis
Ensono Digital