intu geared up for Black Friday weekend

Retailers wanting to reach millions of UK’s shoppers across the forthcoming Black Friday weekend (28 Nov to 01 Dec) will welcome the significant footfall expected at intu shopping centres through local promotions, experiences and events designed with customers in mind.

With more super prime UK shopping centres than anyone else, intu welcomed over five million customers to its centres during last year’s four-day Black Friday weekend. The period marks the beginning of the Christmas rush and coincides with the last monthly pay-day before the festive season.

“American-owned retailers brought the Black Friday concept over to their British stores a few years ago, especially on technology sales,” said Trevor Pereira, commercial & digital director of intu. “The date is now mainstream in the UK retail calendar and, along with Cyber Monday for on-line purchases, these four days are amongst the busiest shopping times of the year.”

Black Friday will mark the launch of intu’s national marketing campaign ‘Love Christmas even more’ with promotions, experiences and offers to create excitement throughout the festive period. Experiential events at intu centres during Black Friday, for example, will include Sony Xperia Z3 mobile phone launch campaign, Microsoft’s new Xbox One console, Diageo highlighting Baileys Original, and Sky with personalised Christmas images to share on social media.

Pereira added: “Because of our national coverage, deep understanding of consumer shopping habits and to support our retailers, we have created a Black Friday survival guide to guide families through the weekend. It is designed to ensure customers are properly prepared so they make the most of the offers available, and means our retailers will benefit fully.”

As well as the numerous events in the shopping centres, intu’s transactional website, intu.co.uk, will be discounting items throughout to enthuse its 1.5 million monthly visitors across the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend. The website features products from a range of brands including many of intu’s physical retailers. It focuses on top names, such as Vivienne Westwood, Nike, Hugo Boss, Versace Jeans and Austin Reed, and means customers can shop at intu, 24/7.

Pereira commented: “intu has some of the UK’s best shopping centres in the strongest locations, which means we’re anticipating a busy weekend. We’re focused on attracting footfall for our retailers so their businesses can flourish while providing every customer with a great Black Friday shopping experience.”