As the dust settles on this year’s Black Friday bonanza, Retail Week explores five things retailers learned from the promotional event.

1. Retailers reaped rewards by being prepared and managing customer expectations

The tale of Black Friday 2015 was one far removed from the scenes we saw in stores up and down the country last year. The images of people fighting over flatscreen TVs were a thing of the past as the event went off without incident.

Admittedly, the number of people flocking to bricks-and-mortar stores decreased considerably compared to last year, which helped create a more bearable shopping experience, but retailers deserve credit for the part they played in that.

As the dust settles on this year’s Black Friday bonanza, Retail Week explores five things retailers learned from last week’s promotional event.

Black Friday

The number of bargain-hungry shoppers flocking to bricks-and-mortar stores decreased considerably compared to last year

The lessons learned from last year were evident as the likes of Tesco, Toys R Us and JD Sports employed much more controlled queueing systems outside stores, forcing people to zig zag around barriers and file into shops in an orderly fashion, rather than piling in.

In busier stores, customers were only allowed to enter in groups of around 20 to afford them more time and space to peruse the deals on offer.

And for those shopping from home, retailers managed expectations around fulfilment after scores of customers were left unhappy last year when purchased goods failed to hit their doormats the next day as promised.

If 2014 was a wake-up call, this Black Friday proved to retailers exactly how important preparation can be.

2. Black Friday could become a lifeline for fashion retailers

A number of retailers have made no secret of their less than complimentary views on Black Friday – John Lewis boss Andy Street and Home Retail chief executive John Walden are but two who have bemoaned the distortive effect it has on Christmas trading.

Andy Street

Andy Street

John Lewis boss Andy Street is one of several retailers to have bemoaned the distortive effect Black Friday has on Christmas trading

However, the event could prove to be something of a lifeline for fashion retailers, who have suffered from two consecutive warm autumns.

With shoppers shunning cold weather ranges during unseasonably sunny weather, retailers have seen like-for-like sales dip and stock rooms bulge with excess products.

The buzz surrounding Black Friday has given them the perfect excuse to offload such products at knock-down prices and take full advantage of the clamour for bargains.

On a day that sees world leaders gather in Paris to discuss global warming, the balmy autumns look set to persist – meaning fashion retailers will be keen to persevere with their Black Friday promotions, too.

3. Websites are still struggling to cope…even if you’re John Lewis

Department store giant John Lewis took great pride in its website’s ability to withstand the deluge of shoppers on Black Friday last year.

Black friday argos jpg

Black friday argos jpg

Argos’s website went down temporarily on the day it launched its Black Friday promotions, while John Lewis, River Island, Boots and Boohoo suffered outages on the day itself

But even the retail behemoth’s ecommerce platform proved fallible this time around as online shoppers were again left frustrated by a number of websites throughout the day.

John Lewis, River Island, Boots and Boohoo were among the big names to suffer from web outages during the course of Black Friday as an increasing number of consumers shunned physical stores and shopped for bargains on their mobile devices – a shift in habits that onlookers predicted would take online Black Friday spending past the £1bn mark this year.

John Lewis’ online director Mark Lewis told the Retail Week Supply Chain Summit in May that “warning shots” were fired in 2014 when retailers struggled to cope with spikes in website traffic.

Despite having a year to defend against this year’s onslaught, similar crashes ensued, serving to emphasise the importance of investment into online systems.

4. Mobile is becoming increasingly important

Despite the problems experienced by some websites, online proved the big winner on Black Friday – a trend that has continued in the following three days as footfall slumped.

And as consumers shift their focus online when hunting for the best cut-price deals, mobile devices are becoming an increasingly popular shopping method.

tablet shopping

tablet shopping

13% of online sales on Black Friday were made by tablet users

Just 53% of online traffic came via desktop on Black Friday this year according to PCA Predict, as 34% of shoppers used their mobile and 13% opted for tablets to search for the best promotions.

With the current figure of 39.4 million smartphone users in the UK poised to increase to 46.4 million by 2018, more and more consumers will start to utilise shopping apps and responsive websites on their mobiles.

If retailers are to capitalise on that huge audience, it is vitally important that their mobile apps are both appealing and efficient not just to attract new customers, but to retain existing ones as well.

5. The future of Black Friday is far from certain in bricks and mortar

A point that was made weeks before Black Friday when Asda called time on the sales phenomenon has only been accentuated following the day itself.

The Walmart-owned grocer was credited alongside Amazon with bringing the event to the UK in 2013, but this year pulled away from the promotional frenzy and even urged customers to “forget Black Friday” in its advertising.

That already gave its retail rivals licence to scale back on its deals and the clear shift to online will add to the argument that bricks-and-mortar stores should radically rethink their involvement – or scrap it altogether.

Black Friday has gained popularity among shoppers in the UK

Black friday Asda

Asda called time on its involvement in Black Friday this year after popularising the event in the UK

Most retailers extended their sales over a weekend, a week, or in some cases, a fortnight to avoid the one-day rush for deals that distorted trading patterns so severely in 2014.

But retail giants like Tesco were still lumbered with leftover Black Friday stock such as flatscreen TVs and vacuum cleaners in some of its stores yesterday night, while conversely enjoying its busiest ever 24-hour period ever on its general merchandise site Tesco Direct.

With the clamour for in-store deals clearly dampening down and the costs associated with unsold stock to be considered, retailers could well shift their Black Friday focus online next year, or follow in the footsteps of Asda by investing in price over a longer two-month period.

Either way, this year’s performance has made it increasingly unlikely that Black Friday in the UK will continue to exist in the one-day rush format that we initially adopted from the US.