Black Friday or Manic Monday

Retailing has done it tough over the last year, but Chritmas is the time when in theory all that changes. The day after Thanksgiving in the USA is when retailers in theory start paying money to themselves rather than the taxman. Thus Black Friday has proven to be a necessary positve retailing day in that part of the world and all the signs are it was a reasonable trading day. Not to be out done, Monday 29th Novemeber in the UK is now called Manic Monday, this is the biggest online shopping day of the year when an estimated £22.4 million is spent, a proportion of the £537 million that will be spent online during the next month. The reason the 29th is so important is that it is the last pay day before Christmas. 74% of consumers plan to buy some presents online this year in the UK with one in ten consumers using there mobile phone to purchase goods. As I have mentioned in my articles, the next twelve months will see the mobile phone become the major tool used by consumers to communicate with retailers. Why buy on line? 71% of those asked are saying it is to aviod the queues in the shopping centres. For shops the 18th December is forecast to be the busiest shopping day of the year with 10 million Brits going shopping on that day and spending £769,000 a minute or £1.1 billion spent during the day. With VAT [GST] planned to rise in many countries in the new year, this will be a bonus before a difficult start to the new year as consumers get used to increased prices. Ref: Log onto Manic Monday, Daily Mail Nov 29