All the major retailers in the UK are prepared and are announcing their Black Friday super productions:
The Award for the Best Comedy goes to Tesco!
Last year I wrote a post on “Taking orders is great but how about delivering on time and on quality?”. It is pretty hilarious but Tesco have already given up.
They announce that “Due to unexpected high demand all deliveries will take 5-7 days” and “Express delivery is currently unavailable”.
No, you are not dreaming, today 11th November, 16 days before Black Friday, Tesco are informing us that “Due to unexpected demand” they can’t deliver on time. Tesco is officially inventing a new concept: The Unexpected Expected High Demand, LoL. For a company breathing Customer Satisfaction, this is very interesting. Basically, Tesco has made the decision not to invest in sufficient capacity on the front and back office. They will be, knowingly, selling beyond their firm value chain capacity.
The award for the Best Customer engagement goes to Argos.co.uk.
They are offering to consumers the option to register in order to get “quicker access to our biggest deals and faster in-store collection from our Fast Track counter in-store when you buy online. Plus we’ll hold your item for 7 days, so you can pick it up when convenient.”. Very good Argos, “Quicker access” means that you’ll get a link to the page and you will have a VIP pass to the site when it will be blocked because it is too busy. That’s the e-version of the stamp at the top of your hand giving you access to the night club. You remember? The queue outside, you have your stamp and you get in and out as many times as you went. Argos will make you a VIP. Well done Argos, however it would be better to get your capacity planning right so that you don’t need to implement it. Argos, have already given up on delivery though.
Remember that last year the carriers complained that the retailers did not inform them on planned demand. It will be interesting to see whether this year the carriers or the retailers are blaming each other.
The award for the best “we are mastering it” goes to Amazon and John Lewis.
The two retailers are simply informing their consumers of the dates of Black Friday and also that they already have ongoing promotions. Last year, both retailers delivered both on performance and customer service, with an advantage to John Lewis because they pay all their taxes in the UK and because it is good for the UK economy. Amazon is knowingly applying a tax avoidance strategy, even though things should get better.
Stay tuned…
Ed Boris 