Black
Friday has already changed the face of peak retailing as we know it –
but this year it’s changing again. Retailers including Argos and Amazon
are trying to wrestle back control of Black Friday by starting their
sales early and stretching the event out to a “Black Friday week of
deals” – thereby spreading the supply chain pressure across more days.
Will we see less chaos this Friday? We fully expect so, but for many
retailers it’s still a ‘pressure cooker’ event.
Brian
Gaunt, CEO iForce comments: “The supply chain is very much in the
spotlight this year and we have been working on the opportunities and
supply chain challenges with our retail clients such as John Lewis,
Fortnum & Mason and Cath Kidston since peak 2014. It’s a time that
requires both expertise and technology to be second to none. To support
the uplift in volume at peak – which we’re forecasting to be a 25 per cent uplift in orders this Black Friday – we’ve bolstered our workforce by
almost 400 per cent (up to approx 2600 iForce employees).
Some
of our clients process around 40-45 per cent of the year’s volume in the fourth
quarter, and Black Friday is now a significant driver of that number.
The planning behind the uplift in volume is to ensure that there’s no
change in delivering excellent customer service for clients and ensures
that the right technology, training, experience and flexibility are in
place to be able to respond to the Black Friday beast at pace and
beyond. It’s going to be a busy day – bring it on!”
iForce
are also keen to reinforce the message to retailers that an order is
never complete until it has surpassed its return by date. Many stores
this year are looking at the prospect of 100 per cent more Black Friday returns
than in 2014. “It’s how you deal with these returns to protect margins
that will make or break your overall peak success.” Gaunt concludes.
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