Big fashion retailers are so disillusioned
with the damaging effects of ‘Black Friday’ that many of them are refusing to
take part in this year’s annual discount bonanza.
House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer
and Selfridges will all trade as normal on Friday 23rd November. Even online
fashion retailers will be stepping back from the annual event, which one
supplier said had become a “nightmare” due to customers loading up on cheap purchases
that they then return.
Marks & Spencer CEO Steve Rowe
said: “We will not engage in discounting for Black Friday. We will be making
sure any discounts are passed on to our customers in lower prices all year
round.”
Black Friday, which traditionally
falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US, was introduced to the UK by
Amazon in 2010. It has been popular with British shoppers, but not the shops
themselves. Richard Hyman, a well-known retail consultant, claims that “Black
Friday has probably been the most stupid retail import from the USA this
country has ever seen. To launch a promotion when you are trying to promote your
Christmas range is very confusing for customers.”
Fashion stores, unlike companies which
sell electrical goods, dislike Black Friday because discounting their prices so
early in the festive season means that clothing chains are forced to cut prices
on goods that they could have sold at full price right up to Christmas.
But retailers that sell bigger items,
such as TVs and electrical goods, believe that they are able to tempt shoppers
to part with cash for expensive items at a time when they have more money in
their pockets. So therefore companies like Currys PC World and Argos will take
part in Black Friday this year, even though clothing retailers like and M&S
and House of Fraser are avoiding the event.
As for online retailers, many of them
intensely dislike Black Friday because customers tend to buy a lot of items and
then just send them back, causing chaos to their delivery networks and leading
to complaints when items arrive late. This is followed by online warehouses becoming
clogged-up with all the returns, resulting in customer complaints when they
don’t get immediate refunds.
It’s a simple fact that trying to win
customer loyalty through heavy discounting during the festive season is completely
pointless. It only attracts the type of customers who are motivated by price cuts,
and who will then subsequently switch allegiance to another supplier as soon as
the price goes back up again in the new year. It seems that many UK retailers
have finally learnt this lesson.
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