Sep 30, 2016

Summer is over and autumn is upon us. There is a chill in the air and the nights are drawing in as winter approaches. Not only does that mean we need to pack our shorts away and dig our winter woollies out, but for those in the retail industry it means one thing…that peak season is fast approaching.

The lead up to Christmas has always been a busy time for retailers, but in recent years the rise in popularity of shopping events such as ‘Black Friday’ has introduced a new kind of peak for the industry.

We have already seen the Black Friday period change significantly over the past few years and there is every chance we will see further change this year. For example in 2014 Black Friday witnessed huge in store footfall with near riots breaking out whereas last year digitally-savvy shoppers opted to shop online in the comfort of their homes or workplace. Last year also saw discounts being offered over a wider time period compared to the previous year in an attempt to ease the chaos and enable retailers to operate efficiently.

This years peak will be characterised by the following key shopping events:

• Singles Day (11^th November)
• Thanksgiving (24^th November)
• Black Friday (25^th November)
• Cyber Monday (28^th November)
• Manic Monday (5th December)

The Black Friday sales rush alone is expected to result in £5 billion being spent online between Thanksgiving on Thursday 24th November through to Cyber Monday on the 28^th. And that’s not including the other shopping events listed above.

Here at wnDirect we are already seeing record volumes and are preparing ourselves for the BIGGEST and BUSIEST peak season to date.

Peak is a congested place for retailers and preparation is vital. Our dedicated Peak Planning Team have been extremely busy working alongside our retailers for some time now getting prepared to ensure that Peak runs as smoothly as possible.

We're ready for peak 2016...are you?