Retailers Are Entering Their Busiest Period, but the Real Test Comes After

Retailers are about to enter their busiest period of the year. Black Friday starts tomorrow and the weeks that follow will define annual performance for many brands. This moment also brings something else: an opportunity. Retailers are more receptive to strategic insight in the lead-up to peak than at any other time of year, because what happens now exposes what must change next.

The contrast between online and physical behaviour has never been sharper. In 2024, UK retail footfall fell by more than 2% year on year according to the British Retail Consortium. The decline continued into 2025, with October marking the sixth consecutive month of falling footfall at -0.7% year on year. The shift is clear. Online demand continues to absorb more of the purchasing journey. In August 2025, e-commerce accounted for 27.6% of total retail sales excluding fuel, up from 27.1% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, pressure on digital performance is rising. Industry reporting states that online basket abandonment cost UK retailers approximately 38 billion GBP in 2024. This represents a year of lost growth and signals a bigger truth. Customers are not leaving because of lack of interest. They leave because the retail experience does not meet expectations.

Peak is the moment when these expectations collide with operational reality. It is also the moment retailers learn the most about what must change before next season.

The New Peak Reality. What Customers Expect and What Retailers Must Do Next

Peak trading has evolved. Discounting still drives traffic, but it no longer determines loyalty. Customers now choose brands based on ease, convenience and experience.

Recent consumer research shows this shift clearly. Deloitte reported that up to 40 percent of consumers determine brand value on factors other than price. Akeneo found that 66 percent of shoppers prefer purchasing through mobile apps and one in four now choose to buy directly through social media. Convenience, clarity and speed shape preference.

Today’s customer views all channels as one. They see a product on Instagram, check stock in store, compare alternatives on mobile and complete the purchase online. They expect the journey to behave as a single continuous experience.

This means retailers need to prioritise:

• Real time stock visibility across all channels

• Consistent product, price and promotion logic

• Identical journeys across web, app and store

• Fulfilment transparency that updates in real time

• Returns processes that do not vary by channel

Technical alignment between systems is no longer optional. It is critical for conversion. Peak season makes these gaps visible and exposes where customer friction originates.

At TCTG, our Labs team supports retailers by mapping these multichannel journeys, analysing data points across the stack and identifying where friction occurs. The goal is to turn peak season pressure points into advantage.

Omnichannel Consistency. Closing the Gap Between What Customers Expect and What Systems Deliver

Even a strong physical retail presence cannot reach every customer. As footfall continues to decline and digital journeys increase, omnichannel consistency becomes the main competitive differentiator.

Achieving this consistency requires more than connecting systems. It requires a unified data layer that reflects the same truth across every touchpoint. When customer identity, pricing logic, product availability or fulfilment updates differ between systems, the customer sees the gap instantly.

Common failures include:

• Online shows an item in stock although the local store has none

• App promotions do not appear in the point of sale

• Checkout estimates delivery in two days but the warehouse is already overloaded

• Returns policies differ between in store and online

• Customer profiles do not sync across loyalty, app and CRM

Each of these issues breaks trust. This is not only a customer experience problem. It is a data problem, a systems problem and an operational problem.

Industry research reinforces the impact. Retail Week reporting shows that more than half of consumers will abandon a brand after a single failed fulfilment experience. Fulfilment breakdowns are often where system fragmentation is most visible.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides one of the strongest foundations for solving this fragmentation because it centralises product data, customer identity and ordering logic. When integrated across digital and physical channels, it provides a single source of truth.

TCTG helps retailers deploy, optimise and extend Salesforce Commerce Cloud to close these omnichannel gaps. Our teams specialise in architecture design, real time inventory integration, unified customer profiles and fulfilment orchestration. These are the changes that move retailers ahead of the next peak.

Data as a Survival Tool. Predict, Personalise and Perform

Peak season produces the highest volume of behavioural signals that retailers receive all year. The retailers who win next year will be the ones using this data to design their next move.

1. Predict demand with accuracy
   AI driven forecasting tools can identify trends, regional surges and stock risk before they occur. Salesforce has reported that retailers adopting predictive analytics during peak trading have reduced stockouts by up to 30%. Precise forecasting lowers operational strain and prevents lost revenue.

2. Personalise customer experience
   Salesforce Einstein AI enables product recommendations, content adjustments and cart recovery based on browsing behaviour, purchase history and fulfilment availability. Salesforce data shows personalised cart recovery messages can increase conversion rates by more than 18%.

3. Perform through continuous insight
   Data from peak trading helps retailers detect micro friction points. This includes drop off analysis, slow loading pages, fulfilment delays, inaccurate inventory feeds and inconsistent promotional rules. Each insight becomes a roadmap for change.

TCTG Labs works closely with brands to build advanced analytics, experiment with new checkout flows, test emerging channels and validate new technology models through controlled pilots. Data is the foundation of this experimentation cycle.

Preparing for the Next Season. Turning Insight into Innovation

The retailers who will lead 2026 are already acting. They are treating this year’s peak not as an end but as an early signal of what must evolve.

At TCTG, we help retailers turn peak season findings into rapid innovation, moving from “analysis” to “action.” Here’s how:

• Experimentation at speed: Run controlled pilots for new checkout flows, loyalty experiences, or fulfilment models

• Emerging channels testing: Try out live-shopping, checkout, or conversational commerce in a sandbox before full rollout

• AI & automation prototyping: Explore predictive replenishment or dynamic pricing models using Salesforce Commerce Cloud integrations

• Experience diagnostics: Map every digital and in-store touchpoint to find hidden friction and fix it before next season

Every insight captured during peak becomes fuel for improvement. Each improvement compounds into competitive advantage

Turning Insight into Action

Peak trade season is not the finish line. It is a stress test of your entire retail operation. The data, failures and friction points that appear this week are the signposts for your growth next year.

If your 2025 peak data is already revealing cracks, now is the right moment to act. Early action creates early advantage.

Discover how TCTG Labs helps retailers turn peak season pressure into long term performance.

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