Making Christmas the cut off for Black Friday deliveries won’t meet customers’ expectations, warns Doddle

New research from parcel company Doddle has indicated that nearly 40% of UK consumers will be making personal purchases rather than sorting their Christmas shopping this Black Friday. And while this may seem like “just another Black Friday statistic”, Doddle believes that it could actually be particularly relevant to the parcel delivery industry.

In a statement issued today (12 November), Doddle explained why this could be so: “Carriers and retailers have been preparing all year for the spike in parcel volumes brought on by Black Friday, hiring more drivers and investing infrastructure. One solution that has been proposed is to manage the Black Friday volumes by spreading delivery out across slower services, but reassuring customers that their deliveries will be made in time for Christmas.

“However, Doddle’s research suggests that using Christmas as the deadline may be misguided if nearly half the parcel volume is personal purchases rather than Christmas presents.”

Doddle’s CEO Tim Robinson hammered the point home: “I think there’s a common belief in the industry that as long as a Black Friday delivery is made in time for Christmas, the consumer will be accepting of a slower service. However, if it’s not a Christmas present, using Christmas as the cut off is a misnomer.  

“We know from multiple studies and the success of services like Amazon’s Prime Now, that consumers increasingly want same day or next day delivery services. They are impatient for the goods they’ve spent their hard earned cash on, so offering slower delivery around Black Friday probably is not going to meet their expectations. Instead there needs to be greater collaboration within the supply chain to ensure capacity is maximised and services continue to meet consumers’ needs, not just the needs of the industry.”

With more consumers buying presents for themselves on Black Friday, Doddle expects that there will be less “personal purchase” spending in the post-Christmas period and retailers won’t be able to sustain three months of discounting – so January sale periods could shorten dramatically.

“This then puts greater pressure on the supply chain from a delivery and returns perspective,” argued Robinson. “Retailers will have to look at how they can tighten the returns cycle to ensure they aren’t left with vast volumes of stock returned after Black Friday waiting to be processed for resale pre-Christmas.”