How is the postal strike affecting Black Friday sales?

CTV National News: Black Friday in Canada Canadians faced busy malls and tense crowds to take advantage of Black Friday deals across the country. Janet Dirks has more.

As the federal government works towards ending more than a month of rotating strikes by Canada Post employees, which have caused a daunting backlog in deliveries, consumers have sought shopping alternatives in brick-and-mortar stores and subscription services, such as Amazon Prime.

That’s according to one retail expert who says Canadian consumers are more likely to shop in store and use Amazon Prime this Black Friday and holiday season because of the uncertainty created by the strikes.

“You’ll see consumers making that decision, understanding that what they’re ordering online might not be making it in time for the holidays. They may choose to go to a store,” retail expert Doug Stephens told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday.

Stephens also predicts that shoppers will resort to paid services such as Amazon Prime because they use UPS instead of Canada Post as its primary shipper.

“I think you’re going to see winners and losers on both sides. I think brick and mortar [stores] could be one of the beneficiaries of this crisis that we’re in right now, but you could also see Amazon pick up some Prime members as well,” he said.

It’s a critical time of year for retailers who depend on the period from Black Friday to the holidays for their overall revenue. According to the Retail Council of Canada, this time period represents 20 per cent of all retail sales for the year.

With the Canada Post strikes impacting delivery times, companies across the country have already reported declines in online revenue.

“It’s a tremendously important time,” Stephens said. “I think a lot of the damage may have already been done.”

If physical stores are seeing an increase in shoppers this Black Friday, they appear to be civilized ones, because there have been no reports of any disturbances or unruly behaviour as of Friday morning.