Comment: Retailers must refocus on what makes them great

British retail is going through an identity crisis. For some it’s more existential.

Take Black Friday, the imported horror show has come to define the last weekend of November. Who actually wins from Black Friday or its poor cousin, Cyber Monday? Not necessarily the retailers who, despite seeing a brief sales spike, bleed margin over those 48 hours and volume throughout December.

The customer doesn’t really win either. Some buy stuff they don’t need. One friend rather tragically ended up with a Nestlé Dolce Gusto Melody coffee machine, not realising the milk was powdered and came in a capsule.

Others get manhandled in the stampede to buy discounted selfie sticks, while online shoppers are punished with less than perfect fulfilment.

This is not good for retailers’ brands and certainly not for the hallowed customer experience. Shoppers are becoming savvy to this. I know people who, having been embroiled in the 2014 mayhem, have vowed to steer clear from town centres, shopping centres and supermarkets this November. Black Friday will not go away but the question is, do we have to embrace it so fully?

It comes back to this identity crisis. These stalwarts of British retail, world retail in many cases, want to be more American, to be more Amazon (even though, newsflash, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving over here). And when the focus is not on emulating an American holiday without the turkey, it’s about competing with a pair of German retailers who will always put price before customer service. (Have you ever made the mistake of going to Aldi without a fistful of plastic bags?)

Even the few big retailers not looking over their shoulders are at pains to point out that they really don’t care what everyone else is doing, which kind of implies they actually do.

So how about 2015 being the year British retailers – food, clothing, health, beauty and homeware – focus on what makes them great again? Andy Higginson, chairman elect of Morrisons, put this far more succinctly when he rumbled the supermarkets for “talking to each other, not their customers”. He’s absolutely right.

There are early signs this is starting to change. When he updated, Tesco boss Dave Lewis determinedly focused on the customer. “We are seeing the benefits of listening to our customers,” he said. “The investments we are making in service, availability and selectively in price are already resulting in a better shopping experience.” It’s early days for Lewis but his starting point is sound.

Maybe it’s worth thinking about the customer in the context of Black Friday. Put yourself in the shoes of that beleaguered mum queuing all night for a slightly cheaper PlayStation. Or the 17-year-old who’s shelled out £100 for a coat on a Saturday only to find it’s deeply discounted the following Friday.

Let’s remember the customers at every stage in the process. I’m not a retailer, but it might be worth a try.

• Kate Walsh, head of retail and consumer practice, Ridgeway Partners