Franchising, retail, business
23/11/2017 - A former boss of Harrods has warned that the annual Black Friday frenzy is turning into a major disaster for the hard-pressed British high street.
Retail expert Andrew Jennings, who also ran House of Fraser and the New York department store Saks Fifth Avenue, said the end-of-November ritual was forcing stores to cut prices in the run-up to Christmas when they can afford it least.
Mr Jennings told the Standard: “As a retailer I’m totally against it — the lead up to Christmas should be a great opportunity to sell at full price. The sale period is getting longer so to take a price cut at Christmas is against everything I believe in in terms of getting a retailer profitable.
“Having said that, now we’ve got it if you don’t do it you lose out. But everyone needs to think very carefully about how they participate and whether they can come up with other ideas, such as a charity donation instead.
"For example, Fat Face are donating £100,000 in exchange for not participating in Black Friday.”
Mr Jennings, who published a book on retailing called Almost Is Not Good Enough this month, added that the Black Friday effect was having a massive distorting effect on spending.
“It’s already looking as if Black Friday has depressed sales in October and if we’re not careful we will find that all of November is being discounted.”
A number of major British retailers have failed in the run-up to Christmas when cash flow is most stretched, including music chain Zavvi and Woolworths.
The warning was echoed by retail expert James Brown, of pricing consultants Simon-Kucher. He said: “We’ve reviewed thousands of promotions by hundreds of businesses, and we’re confident that many will make dramatically less than they expect out of cutting prices on Black Friday.
“Some will even make a loss, although many won’t actually realise it as the sales numbers look good at first glance. One business we examined recently had the unwelcome realisation that roughly half of all their promotions were loss-making. In their haste to promote, they simply hadn’t noticed.”
One retailer Kerry Mounsey, founder of ethical fashion label Verry Kerry, said she would be boycotting Black Friday. She said: “Instead, Verry Kerry will be partnering with charity Streets Kitchen to donate 20 per cent of all orders made from Friday 24 to Monday 27 November, to buying thermal socks for the homeless. Our target is 500 pairs.”
This year’s Black Friday spree is set to be the biggest since the event was imported from America by Amazon in 2010. A total of £2.6 billion is forecast to be spent on deals, up eight per cent on last year’s £2.4 billion, according to analysis by the Centre for Retail Research and the VoucherCodes website.
- JONATHAN PRYNN Consumer Business Editor
Fonte:https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/black-friday-is-a-disaster-for-high-street-says-former-harrods-boss-a3698121.html
L’idea di creare un blog giornaliero per il mondo del retail nasce grazie ai continui feedback positivi che riceviamo dalle notizie condivise attraverso diversi canali.
Rivolto a tutte le tipologie di distribuzione presenti sul mercato: dal dettaglio ai grandi mall, dal commercio locale e nazionale alle catene di negozi internazionali, investitori, ai nostri fedeli clienti e chiunque altro è realmente interessato allo studio e all'approfondimento su ciò che guida il comportamento dei consumatori. E' anche un blog per tutti coloro i quali lavorano già nel mondo del Retail.
Verranno condivise le loro esperienze, le loro attitudini e le loro experties. Un blog di condivisione, quindi.
Ospitato sul sito della BRD Consulting, che da decenni lavora nel mondo distributivo Italiano ed Internazionale, il blog Store in & out riguarderà il business, i marchi e i comportamenti d'acquisto propri di alcune delle più grandi aziende.
Ci saranno anche notizie in lingua originale per dare evidenza dell’attenzione della nostra Azienda nei confronti del global.
È possibile raggiungere lo staff a: info@brdconsulting.it
