In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we report as leading retailers get their Black Friday sales underway. Many are adopting different strategies from previous years, with John Lewis breaking with its traditions by this year running one of the longer peak trading events, followed by Amazon and Argos, while Currys PC World focuses on a single day in combination with ‘black tag’ offers in the run-up. Jigsaw, which previously avoided running Black Friday events, this year offers a Black Friday edit. The new approaches come at a challenging time for retail. In previous newsletters we’ve seen predictions that sales will barely grow compared to years gone by, in part as a result of Brexit uncertainty, and in part due to the ongoing General Election. Find out more in our piece, along with news of pop-up shops with a difference.
Today we also report as Kingfisher says it will rethink its strategy amid falling third-quarter sales at every brand except Screwfix, as Arcadia says it’s making good progress in the wake of its CVA, and as Naked Wines chief executive Rowan Gormley says he’ll bow out once his transformation of the former Majestic Wines business into the pureplay Naked Wines business that he founded is complete.
We also report as a new Early Learning Centre website is launched by its new owner The Entertainer.
In today’s guest comment, Jason Tavaria, UK chief executive of InPost, says that retailers are missing out on an “astonishing amount of revenue” through basket abandonment – and asks how retailers can reduce friction at the checkout and boost sales
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