Mobile phones took the strain on Black Friday as shoppers snapped up deals from home, at the bus stop and on the train – dealing another blow to struggling high streets on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Argos said half of its orders on Friday morning had been made on a handset, up from 40% last year, while Carphone Warehouse said its sales through smartphones were up 8% year on year.
Shoppers were not only looking for deals on toys, electrical goods and beauty products but also planning trips away next year. Internet searches for Black Friday holiday deals were up more than 1,000% on the same period in 2017, according to analysis by MyVoucherCodes.
Overall, shoppers on Friday appeared to be spending less than last year. Barclaycard said there were 10% more transactions using its debit and credit cards by 3pm, but that the total amount spent was 10% less. Part of that change is because shoppers have been able to spread their bargain hunting over a longer period time after a number of retailers began discounting earlier in the week or even last week, including John Lewis and Amazon.
With most of the activity taking place online this year, there was little sign on Friday morning of the in-store frenzy seen several years ago when there were fights over discounted TVs. However, there were reports of long queues at Aldi for those wanting to buy the supermarket chain’s limited Kevin the Carrot cuddly toy.
By Friday afternoon, some high street stores had queues snaking outside. But overall, footfall in town centres, shopping centres and retail parks was down by 6%, according to the shopper monitoring firm Springboard, as caution about spending during a time of Brexit uncertainty combined with the switch to buying online.
“Clearly Black Friday has become an online event,” said Diane Wehrle of Springboard.
The websites of Debenhams and Game Digital crashed under the strain on Thursday evening while Superdrug’s went down briefly on Friday.
John Rogers, the chief executive of Argos, said he expected about 70% of its sales to be online this year, up from about 65% last year.
On Friday morning he said sales were about the same as last year. “In the current retail environment we thought it might be more challenging. The reality is it’s quite tough out there for consumers at the moment. With the uncertainty they want to make sure when they do shop they are getting a great bargain.”
The increase in online transactions will mean more pressure on warehouse and delivery staff during their busiest time of the year.
There were demonstrations outside Amazon warehouses in the UK led by the GMB union and strikes in Germany, Italy and Spain. Unions accused the company of placing warehouse workers under too much pressure.
“Amazon’s refusal to negotiate with unions is not only a violation of workers’ rights, it is dangerous. By not addressing workers concerns, hazards remain, and the injuries continue,” said Christy Hoffman, the general secretary of the UNI Global Union. “Next-day delivery should not mean a lifetime of pain for Amazon workers.”
The company said its European delivery network was fully operational.
“Amazon has created in the UK more than 25,000 good jobs with a minimum of £9.50 an hour and in the London area, £10.50 an hour on top of industry-leading benefits and skills training opportunities,” it said.
“All of our sites are safe places to work and reports to the contrary are simply wrong.”
Experts have warned that retailers risk going into the red by Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounting in an effort to win sales in a lacklustre market. Cyber Monday, a web-only sales day, takes place next week.
A string of retailers which shunned Black Friday last year participated this year, including the clothing chains Jigsaw and Whistles, the supermarket Asda and the DIY firm Homebase.
However, retailers have reined in on the array and depth of discounts this year, according to the research firm GfK. It said, for example, that only a third of laptops were discounted this Black Friday compared with 70% last year, and that the average price drop was 8.9% compared with 9.5%.
Julie Palmer, a partner at the advisory firm Begbies Traynor, said: “It seems retailers are now coming to a crossroads, being damned if they do, and damned if they don’t participate in Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
“If they do, then [profit] margins won’t be significant despite the investment needed for it, and it could result in a negative knock-on effect on future sales during the crucial Christmas period. If they don’t, then store footfall and online traffic will decline, public perceptions may be affected and a longer-term drop in sales may be experienced.”
