Early indications suggest Cyber Weekend bigger than ever

MetaPack is responsible for processing a huge number of parcel deliveries on behalf of the UK’s retailers and carriers.

The company saw a 26% year-on-year rise in delivery volumes processed across its platform over Black Friday and Cyber Weekend. 

This is an interesting early metric, suggesting eCommerce is far from running out of steam.

MetaPack expected to see a rise in delivery volumes of around 20%, but after shipping a total of 11 million parcels on behalf of European based retailers and brands between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the company confirmed that the increase was far higher than predicted.

These figures reflect other industry intelligence which indicates that while shopping on the high street on Black Friday fell away, eCommerce sales rose.

IMRG has said that the amount spent on UK online retail sites on Black Friday alone was up 11.7% to £1.39bn.

Of that spend, 39% was completed on a smartphone, with the device taking the highest share of sales against desktop and tablet.

This stronger-than-expected performance was achieved in spite of a number of factors that could have exerted a negative influence on growth, such as Black Friday falling relatively early (before payday for some). In addition many retailers ran their own discounting campaigns over varied times.

Even on Monday 13 November, a full week before Black Friday week began, there were 12 Black Friday-specific and 66 non-specific discounting campaigns live among the 210 retailers tracked.

Craig Summers, UK MD, Manhattan Associates added: “If retailers are to make the most of Black Friday, they need to make sure they are giving customers a reason to shop in store. They need to offer a truly omnichannel retailing experience by offering the same deals and the same quality of experience in store as online to lure consumers.

"And for those retailers still allowing their stores to compete with online, now is the time to make a change. Retailing in a customer’s eyes is channel-less and therefore the retailers should be seeing this the same way. The stores need to stop viewing the online channel as a threat, and work seamlessly alongside them to offer customers a unified experience, or risk losing them to another retailer.”