Black Friday and Cyber Monday ‘pose both a threat and opportunity’
Prices down 9% over last three years, with this trend set to continue
Print25 November 2016
Black Friday has officially arrived with Ibec’s Retail Ireland pointing out that many retail outlets are now running promotions over a few days and expanding the promotional cycle into a week-long event, as opposed to the original one day initiative.
“While not necessarily good news for retailer’s margins, it’s great news for Irish consumers”, said Retail Ireland director Thomas Burke. “Already prices are down almost 9% over the last 36 months and that trend is likely to continue over the coming months. There is wonderful value in the market for Irish consumers hunting for bargains, with participating retailers offering reductions of over 25% over the coming days.”
Retailers are also preparing their online platforms and distribution networks for the pre-Christmas surge which will come with the much feted Cyber Monday which this years falls on Monday, 28 November.
Following sizeable devaluations in sterling in recent weeks, Retail Ireland reports there has been a considerable upsurge in online shopping with online transactions increasing by 20% to over €1.2 billion in the last quarter. Irish retailers have reacted to that move and are heavily discounting products through their online platforms to retain consumers and encourage transactions in the run up to Christmas.
“The emergence of both Black Friday and Cyber Monday pose both a threat and an opportunity for Irish retailers,” Burke added. “While helping to drive footfall to stores and online platforms, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday phenomena also potentially displace purchasing decisions by consumers, resulting in potentially less activity closer to Christmas. Retailers will have been planning this period for a number of months and have been putting contingencies in place to meet the extra consumer demand over this weekend.”
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