Nordic record in Black Friday shopping

8th March 2016

Nordic online shops have embraced Black Friday with all its special offers. Research from Consignor shows that the number of private parcels sent in connection with Black Friday shopping has increased by 48%.

On Friday November 27, stores worldwide celebrated the US shopping spree, Black Friday. Nordic on- and offline stores are also embracing Black Friday and with good reason, sales have been rapidly increasing over the last few years, and 2015 was no exception.

Research from software company, Consignor, shows that the number of private parcels shipped in connection with Black Friday shopping this year compared to Black Friday last year, has increased by 48% in the Nordics.

Online retail expert and Editor of eDelivery.net, Sean Fleming, explains that the increase is due to people in the Nordics being more open to American traditions:

Black Friday shopping is now part of the Nordic retail landscape. Perhaps because people in the Nordics are more open to other cultures, or because English is widely spoken and accepted, the region has been quicker to latch on to Black Friday than other parts of Europe. Black Friday’s appeal isn’t hard to identify – mega-promotions and discounts offering great deals online and in-store. What’s not to like? But for retailers it’s a slightly more nuanced affair. No one wants to miss out on sales, of course. But margins get squashed, and logistics operations come under enormous pressure; the cost of processing and delivering 40% more items than usual cannot be ignored. Retailers must prepare themselves in order to stay on top of things and not let customers down.

Read more on Free shipping – boom or bust for online shops here

Sean Fleming, online retail expert and Editor of eDelivery.net, underlines the importance of retailers and carriers keeping their delivery promise on Black Friday.

Black Friday grows bigger every year, and next year we can expect another record sale, which is why retailers and carriers must be aware, according to Sean Fleming:

“What can go wrong on Black Friday is if carriers and retailers under-estimate the amount of demand, leading to a shortage of supply. This is a problem that has to be fixed; multi-channel retailers have to be able to keep the promise made to the customer. If they can’t, shoppers will go elsewhere. Whether the problem will be fixed by this time next year is impossible to say, but I hope that logistics are as big if not bigger focus for retailers and carriers than great deals on Black Friday next year.”

Looking at Black Friday shipments in each Nordic country, Norway has experienced the highest increase since 2014 with a staggering 83% increase in the number of private parcels sent in connection with the Black Friday weekend.

Facts

The study is based on shipment data registered on Consignor’s Delivery Management platform. 10,000+ companies in the Nordic generate and manage their shipments through the Consignor platform which contains the world’s largest carrier library.
Black Friday is an American shopping tradition, which is the day after Thanksgiving Day, where on- and offline stores begins the Christmas shopping season with special offers.
eDelivery.net is the trade title for professionals who support multichannel retail.

Text by: Consignor, news@consignor.com