Shop Direct places big bet on Black Friday

Shop Direct, the UK’s leading multi-brand online retailer, is placing a big bet on Black Friday 2014 after last year’s event drove its biggest ever sales day, generating three orders per second via Very.co.uk alone during the busiest hour.

Shop Direct will this year gear up for Very.co.uk’s Black Friday with a TV and press advertising campaign kicking off 48 hours in advance.

Black Friday itself, which falls on Friday 28th November, will then feature hourly deals across all six of Shop Direct’s digital department store brands. These will run from 7am to 9pm on Very.co.uk and from 7am to 6pm on Littlewoods.com – the group’s two biggest brands – across clothing and footwear, home and leisure, electricals, beauty and gifts. All prices will be live until midnight, and a radio tie-up will see Very.co.uk’s hourly promotions announced live across the airwaves nationwide.

A further TV advertising campaign for Littlewoods.com will continue throughout Black Friday, in conjunction with a print media campaign for Very.co.uk.

Sunday 30th November, or ‘Sofa Sunday’, will then kick off ‘Cyber Week’ – a full seven days of one-day only deals supported by an outdoor and tactical advertising campaign for Very.co.uk.

Shop Direct is predicting that Black Friday and Cyber Week will drive millions in incremental sales as price-conscious customers look for promotions in the run-up to Christmas. In total, the etailer is investing close to £1m to support the events.

Jon Owen, retail brands and trading director at Shop Direct, said: “We tested the water last year by introducing Black Friday onto Very.co.uk. We worked closely with our suppliers to buy in must-have products on promotion and had a hunch that being able to pass on those deals to customers would be a big hit. But the level of engagement and incremental sales it drove completely blew us away. It was hands down our busiest ever trading day, generating up to 10,000 orders per hour on Very.co.uk alone.

���If anything, customers are even hungrier for deals this year, so it’s a logical next step for us to roll out Black Friday across all of our brands. And by extending the event over a further seven days with Cyber Week, we think we’ll have something to offer every member of the family in the run-up to what we’re predicting will be another record Christmas for Shop Direct.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact Lauren Young at Shop Direct on lauren.young@shopdirect.com or 0844 292 3986

ABOUT SHOP DIRECT
Shop Direct is the UK’s fourth largest online retailer, with annual sales of more than £1.7 billion. Our digital department store brands include Very.co.uk, which is now a £700 million brand, and receive an average of 950,000 website visits every day.

We exist to make good things easily accessible to more people. With our department store range, market-leading ecommerce and technology capabilities and unique financial services offer, we’re well placed to deliver on that promise.

We sell over 900 famous brands, including big name labels and our own exclusive brands, and deliver 48 million products to our four million customers every year. Our click and collect service, Collect+, delivers to more than 5,500 stores across the country, increasing ease and convenience for customers.

For more information on Shop Direct, visit www.shopdirect.com or follow us on Twitter at @ShopDirect.