Emmanuel Hembert, principal at A.T. Kearney, has released a statement concerning the growing popularity of Christmas promotional days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday is a major phenomenon in the US and is now spreading to the UK through American retailers like Amazon and Gap. Cyber Monday, which occurs after consumers receive their last payslip before Christmas, has also gained momentum in the UK.

Mr Hembert comments: “This year, Amazon is once again offering its customers a whole week of ‘Black Friday’ promotions. Together with Gap, which has announced a Black Friday sale in its stores, it is among the handful of American retailers trying to promote the ‘Black Friday’ concept in the UK. However, this quintessentially American shopping holiday is a long way from becoming as popular in the UK as it is across the Atlantic.” 

“The restrictive character of ‘Black Friday’ doesn’t necessarily mean UK retailers won’t attempt to entice consumer spending with early pre-Christmas promotions. In fact, these are already in full swing. Debenhams launched a 40% Christmas Spectacular on Monday 14th, a move followed by BHS on Thursday 17th. Argos, the Early Learning Centre, Oasis, Dorothy Perkins, Coast, Boots, the House of Fraser – to name but a few – are also offering savings between 20% and 60% on ‘gift-list’ items.” 

“Cyber Monday, set to take place on the 28th of November this year, is a more palpable phenomenon in the UK than Black Friday. However it is still far from being a market-wide promotional event. Mondays Nov 28th and Dec 5th will be a crucial time for retailers as this is when consumers, having just received their last pay check before Christmas, have the most money available for Christmas shopping. With tools for online shopping becoming more and more sophisticated, allowing for 24-hour shopping and instant price comparison, online retailers will be well placed to reap a larger share of what UK consumers spend this Christmas (even more so if the severe weather conditions of 2009 and 2010 repeat themselves this year).  

"It is expected that UK consumers will spend £7.75 billion online in the five-week period before Christmas (up from £6.8 billion spent in 2010), of which almost half (£3.72 billion) will be spent in the first two weeks, in accordance with an earlier-observed pattern.* As far as the general retail situation in the UK is concerned, the current market environment one man’s gain is another man’s loss, and much of the successes of online retailers will come at the expense of the high street. UK consumers are seeing their real incomes squeezed due to pay freezes, growing unemployment and rising living costs, and will remain cautious with their spending in the months to come.” 

*The Interactive Media in Retail Group, the UK industry association for online retailers.