What impact is Black Friday having on physical store traffic?

It’s a mere nine weeks until Christmas and that means retailers both in store and online are gearing up for the busiest shopping season of the year.

With just under a month before the big day, Black Friday on 27^th November heralds one of the most chaotic days in the consumer calendar, where discounts are rife and shoppers are desperate to get their hands on the best deals.

As queue management and customer journey specialists, we’re interested in how brands and stores up and down the country are preparing for this phenomenon adopted from the US.

So, we’ve teamed up with Retail Design World to investigate this new consumer tradition, and specifically to look at how Black Friday is affecting physical store spaces in the UK.

Through an online survey, Tensator Group will measure levels of participation in and preparation for a number of calendar events, and their impact on driving omnichannel retailing.

It’s true, the extent to which retailers associate themselves with this American tradition varies across the board, with huge deviations in the range of offers available and marketing spend invested.

We want to really gain a better understanding of the views of those involved in every level of retail, and how important Black Friday is for the sector. This survey will identify some key trends in the planning process for stores, particularly how they cope with crowd control and ultimately if it has a positive or negative impact on stores and brands.

Click here to take part in the survey, and watch this space for the results.