Seasonal retail promotions imported from overseas can be tricky for retailers but are still a great way to engage customers.

A number of new events have recently entered the retail calendar.

Singles Day started in China in the 1990s as a celebration for college students who were single. The date, November 11, was chosen for its connection between singletons and the number 1. As these internet-era students graduated, they carried on the university tradition into their adult lives organising parties to meet new friends. The online world has now made the event its biggest shopping day of the year.

The US has exported two events that take place in the run-up to Christmas.

The name Black Friday apparently originated during the 1960s in Philadelphia, where it was coined by the police to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that occurred on the day after Thanksgiving.

More recently the explanation was that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss from January through to November and that Black Friday indicated the point at which retailers began to turn a profit (“in the black”).

Cyber Monday resulted from the notion that millions of Americans, fresh from a Thanksgiving weekend of window-shopping, were returning to their high speed internet connections at work on the Monday and were receptive to a new retail promotion.

All of this is terrific stuff for consumers, but really difficult for retailers to manage. What happened to that old perfect world of the two end-of-season Sales in January and July lasting no more than three weeks? We have now educated the consumer to expect, and wait for, pre-Christmas price promotions. Only the luxury brands seem to be resisting this temptation while below them there is a maelstrom of discount activity.

Maybe the internet is to blame? The speed and volume of communication to consumers, and the ease with which prices can be changed online compared to changing tickets in-store, perhaps make this new norm inevitable.

There is always going to be someone like Amazon, who will discount the price to get an advantage. Before the advent of the web, you had to check prices and availability by visiting physical stores; now you can see the whole marketplace online in minutes.

This is not likely to improve retailers’ profitability. Do consumers really buy more units just because there is a price reduction? For fashion retailers, the warm autumn has left many of them with excess coats and knitwear. Will they be prepared to go back to full-price for only a couple of weeks before the winter Sale commences?

Perhaps we are seeing a permanent change, both in the way merchandise is priced and the number of retail promotions and events? Many people enjoy the chase of a bargain.

And maybe we should look at it differently? Events such as these create real reasons to talk to our customers, galvanise the management team, make the stores and website look different and, make all our lives more interesting.

  • Peter Williams is chairman of Boohoo.com, Jaeger and Mister Spex and a former chief executive of Selfridges