As a consumer, the prospect of Black Friday means to start planning ways to put yourself into financial ruin nice and early.

I’m putting on a conference and getting married next year and have already started putting together my list for both events to purchase for all my needs on Black Friday.

And I’m not even that organised, so can only imagine the extent to which it’s exploited by others over this period.

But should you play the game as a retailer? And are you best placed to handle it? Well, the short answer is yes and no.

If we remove Amazon from the equation for a second so we can level the playing field, Black Friday is consistently proving itself to be unmissable for retailers.

“The first time mobile ever overtook desktop traffic was on Black Friday. The first time it overtook desktop for conversion was on Black Friday too”

As consumers we go into a frenzy of purchasing many things we don’t need and often that means shifting products from last season, which is a clear win-win.

The first time mobile ever overtook desktop traffic was on Black Friday. The first time it overtook desktop for conversion was on Black Friday too. This clearly demonstrates two things.

Mobile rules

First is that to really nail your Black Friday experience it’s clear that mobile is essential.

Secondly it suggests the event is skewed slightly younger at the millennial and Generation Z audiences who do everything with their phone.

“The answer to whether you should play or not, as always, comes down to your brand and strategy, and if you’re reading this right now then these decisions have already been made, but there’s still time to optimise. If not there’s time for next year”

However, increasingly we are seeing more mature audiences joining the mobile shopping revolution, going beyond the iPad and tablet due to the rise in size of the mobile screen.

The answer to whether you should play or not, as always, comes down to your brand and strategy, and if you’re reading this right now then these decisions have already been made, but there’s still time to optimise. If not there’s time for next year.

in the meantime, know that you lose around 20% of your visitors with every second of delay there is when your mobile site loads, so retailers must prepare themselves for traffic and conversion assumptions.

If your mobile site is especially slow today, consider how much worse it’ll be on Black Friday. Maybe it’s not worth playing the game after all, but if you are then at least you can go into it with open eyes, from the consumer’s point of view, when it comes to patience on this major shopping day!