As we’ve seen again this year, the Black Friday sales phenomenon has firmly established itself as part of the Christmas shopping frenzy in the UK. Data from Experian and IMRG showed that Black Friday this year broke records again, and we also expect big increases on further pre and post-Christmas sale dates (including a 22 per cent uplift of online spend on Boxing Day). What’s clear is that as retailers move further into the busiest online delivery season ever, logistics is more important than ever, particularly when you consider that misdirected deliveries are estimated to have cost UK businesses £851 million (according to Which).

Alongside the cost impact, retailers and their logistics partners must also consider the potential reputational damage if they get deliveries wrong. The strain on delivery networks last year was felt by many and some major retailers even missed Christmas forecasts, due to a combination of sheer demand and adverse weather. With this year’s sales season expected to be even bigger, If you consider the potential for inaccurate delivery data as well, the risks are even greater. With this in mind retailers also must consider the people behind the sales rush.

Driving the festive frenzy

Black Friday spending first hit its peak in 2014, when it became the biggest online shopping day of the year for the first time. According to Experian research, there are two different consumer groups driving this festive sales rush. Time-pressed, middle income families, typically from suburban and more rural locations, were found to have been the driving force behind pre-Christmas sales in 2014, which saw over £810 million spent on Black Friday (28th November) alone. In contrast, shoppers on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day are more likely to be younger, urban consumers. The major implication of this for retailers is that with the majority of online shoppers in the early-season sales period living outside the major city centres in more rural locations, greater strain is placed on already stretched logistics and delivery services.

Even before you consider these insights on shopper demographics, one of the big issues that results from getting deliveries wrong is the strain that it puts back on the retailer. There is obviously the cost of redelivery not to mention a time and resource cost associated with dealing with complaints via phone, email, Twitter, etc. There is also the potential loss of brand equity to consider, in addition to putting the business under resource strain.

Ensuring data accuracy

The bottom line is that retailers must do everything they can to keep missed deliveries to a minimum, particularly during the festive period when consumers are relying on gifts being delivered in time for Christmas. Having a failed delivery because of inaccurate data is unacceptable and not only will it impact the end customer experience, but we also know it costs their retailers more in returns and redelivery charges.

Retailers should ensure that they are taking measures to validate customer addresses at the point of capture through all channels at a very minimum; this has the added benefit of making the purchase process quicker and more efficient for the customer. It’s also possible to append even more detailed data to each address such Ordnance Survey Geo codes to enable the driver to pinpoint an exact location which can be particularly useful for efficient delivery in more rural areas where we predict to find the majority of Black Friday shoppers this year.

In addition, retailers must take the different types of customer driving the pre- and post- Christmas sales into account. In the run up to Christmas, the focus should be on ensuring delivery networks run smoothly, while following Christmas retailers must also strongly consider the extra levels of in-store support required for the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day rush.

 

By Rebecca Hennessy, Head of Marketing at Experian Data Quality. 

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