Logistics Manager Magazine

UK consumers spent a total of £3.3 billion online over the four-day Black Friday weekend, IMRG and Experian has said. But ten per cent of the 22 million parcels set to be delivered over the next week will not be delivered on time, a retail consultant has warned.

IMRG/Experian said the breakdown of retail sales over the weekend was:

Black Friday: £1.1billion
Saturday 28th: £561million
Sunday 29th: £676million
Monday 30th: £968million

LCP Consulting warned that some 2.2 million of the 22m parcels due to be delivered over the next week won’t arrive on time.

And over the whole of the Christmas period, the consultancy reckons that 17 million parcels worth £695 million “will not arrive when the retailer promises.”

LCP said that the increase of 4 million next day deliveries on Black Friday puts “additional strain” on retailers – resulting in late deliveries.

“Retailers continue to pursue a faster and freer agenda which is simply placing too much pressure on their back end infrastructure and carrier partners to deliver,” said Stuart Higgins, retail partner at LCP Consulting. “With 1 in 10 deliveries risking failure this Christmas, retailers need to ensure they don’t promise what they can’t deliver or the customers will simply find a competitor who can.”

LCP estimates that:

– £75 million (7 per cent) of orders will be delivered late because of the delivery company or the retailer.

– £31 million (2.9 per cent) worth of orders will also need to be re-delivered because of a carded delivery (customer not present at time of first delivery).

* The move from in-store shopping to online was emphasised by figures from Footfall which found that in-store shopping on Cyber Monday dropped by 5.8 per cent in comparison to last year. The retail intelligence service found that shopper traffic decreased on every day of the Black Friday Weekend.

Year-on-year, Black Friday, Saturday 28th November, and Sunday 29th November saw a decrease in footfall of 4.05 per cent, 6.14 per cent and 5.17 per cent respectively.

Steve Richardson, UK regional director of Footfall, said that these figures are an indication of shifting “buying behaviours” – with consumers progressively moving online for deals. Richardson said that the change in footfall also marks a shift in how retailers are tackling discount methods.