It is now three months (to the day, as this item is published) until Black Friday 2015.
Predictions are that we’ll see a huge increase in awareness of Black Friday, leading to more orders, and therefore more deliveries.
How much more requires guesswork. But some people think sales could hit £1bn on Black Friday. Given that 2014 saw Yodel wrestling with an additional 600,000 parcels – thanks to Black Friday – an increase in sales to the level of £1bn will put a considerable amount of strain on the retail delivery network.
According to research carried out by eDigitalResearch for Yodel back in June, 30% of UK shoppers are likely to want to splash out on something three months to the day from today. That compares with an equivalent of around 8% for Black Friday 2014. Small wonder the UK’s second biggest carrier is planning to set upper limits for the amount of next-day business it will accept from Black Friday.
But even if that pays off for Yodel, it’s not going to save the rest of the industry. So what is?
- Failsafes on your order management / warehouse management systems..?
- A special taskforce of cross-discipline personnel, in the fashion of the UK government’s Cobra Committee..?
- A tin-foil hat and a ‘do not disturb’ sign..?
Write and tell us, give us your thoughts, your fears, your pearls of wisdom… we want to hear from you.
Pick three things and share them with us. They could be three must-do things or three things to avoid.
Give us your rule of three for Black Friday; we’ll be compiling our advice from the industry based on your words.
Header image: ‘Black Friday 2010, Westlake Seattle’ – Copyright John Henderson.
Image from Flickr, reproduced under creative commons.
