Retailers divided over Black Friday: a third saying it’s unprofitable and unsustainable

• New report from LCP Consulting – The Omni-channel Journey reveals major retailers with omnichannel capability better positioned for Black Friday: twice as likely to report double digital growth throughout year.
• But, twice as many retailers compared to 2014 are still in transition to omni-channel, recognising a longer journey

Black Friday has divided the retail industry – with a third of major retailers saying it is unprofitable and unsustainable, with those retailers without the infrastructure and capabilities to deliver on their customer promise running the risk of alienating customers and harming long-term sales.

These findings are published today in a new LCP Consulting report - The Omni-channel Journey. The report also found that major retailers with an established omni-channel capability are poised to capitalise on the huge sales potential presented by Black Friday, set to break the £1bn mark for the first time this month. These retailers were also able to measure the true cost of Black Friday in 2014, leaving them in a position of strength with agile, customer driven business models, better able to respond to the high level of customer expectations around this peak trading time.

The report is the third in a series from the leading retail supply chain consultancy which interviewed over 100 leading retailers in the UK and US, in addition to a number of senior retail executives from leading European retailers.

The report includes interviews with an LCP panel, consisting of leading European-based retail experts
including: Graham Barnes (Supply Director, Argos), David Wild (CEO, Domino’s Pizza Group), Dino Rocos (Operations Director, John Lewis Partnership), Neil Ashworth (CEO, Collect+) and Klaus Hellmich at GALERIA Kaufhoff.