Parcels group urges Black Friday rethink as 2020 'could repeat 2014's problems'

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 24, 2020

It’s an accident waiting to happen. Add the UK’s national lockdowns to the upcoming Black Friday trading extravaganza and you have a recipe for disaster “creating an £8.29 billion monster”, according to ParcelHero.

The parcel delivery business is calling for Black Friday 2020 to be spread through the first two weeks of December “to give retailers’ delivery partners a fighting chance” of fulfilling orders and delivering goods in the peak period.
 
ParcelHero noted that 2020 online sales are already up 53% year-on-year, because of the impact of the pandemic. Add the surge in demand created by the rush of Black Friday sales and it fears the UK could be in for a repeat of 2014’s delivery traumas, it said.

“Black Friday 2014 turned from a retailer’s dream to a delivery nightmare as overwhelming demand crashed many UK websites and snapped supply chains”, said David Jinks, its head of Consumer Research. He’s predicting lockdown Black Friday will be even worse this year.

“In France, Amazon and other major stores have just agreed to postpone Black Friday sales until December when France’s own lockdown ends. Why can’t the same happen here”? asked Jinks.

According to the company, Britons spent £5.55bn on Black Friday-Cyber Monday goods last year. In 2019, 387 million of the 462 million Christmas peak deliveries were online shopping orders. It estimates this year, retailers’ deliveries alone will put an estimated 592 million parcels in the system in the weeks before Christmas.

“Due to Black Friday, this Mount Everest of Christmas peaks will spike between 27-30 November – still inside the critical lockdown period in England.

"It really does seem the black cloud of Black Friday 2014 is rolling in once more. The date 28 November 2014 is seared in the memories of many retailers and delivery companies – not to mention their customers”.