Online sales boomed this Black Friday, with Argos securing 500,000 visits to its website in the first hour of online trading alone. This figure, up 50 per cent on last year, indicates the ever increasing stress on retailers to respond to peak online sales periods.?
Today, more than 15million shoppers are expected to take advantage of Cyber Monday online bargains. This shows retailers cannot underestimate the new focus on e-commerce and must ensure their staff are equipped with the digital skills to create an infrastructure that can handle the traffic.
James Parsons, CEO of Arrows Group Global, a digital workforce consultancy which builds digital teams for retailers, commented: ?Last year a number of high profile retailers got a wake-up call when their e-commerce platforms crashed on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, causing them to lose out on millions of pounds in sales.?
?For today?s retailers, their digital capability must go beyond surface level to a more wholesale transformation. 36 per cent say they cannot scale up quickly enough at peak times such as Black Friday. These businesses must ensure they have the workforce in place who can develop a more comprehensive infrastructure that can withstand the pressure of these peak times.??
?The new generation of customers expects an anywhere, anytime service from retailers. This means that businesses must face up to the fact that digital transformation is a priority in today?s marketplace and invest accordingly.?
