HyperFinity co-founder urges Black Friday loyalty overhaul

HyperFinity co-founder Thomas Hill is calling on UK retailers to replace blanket Black Friday promotions with loyalty-based discounts in 2026, arguing that the event now sacrifices margin without reliably bringing additional shoppers into individual stores.

The former Asda pricing lead, who helped introduce the supermarket’s Black Friday event in 2013, set out his proposal in a guest commentary published by InternetRetailing. His argument is for a different approach to promotional spending, rather than the withdrawal of genuine discounts.

What happened

Hill says the pressure to beat the previous year’s revenue has encouraged retailers to expand both the number of products on promotion and the depth of their offers. When shoppers concentrate their purchases on heavily discounted goods, sales growth can come at the expense of margin.

Competition has also reduced the advantage available to any one retailer. With more businesses participating, Hill argues, customer visits are distributed across competing outlets rather than delivering the concentrated increase that helped justify the original discounts.

His criticism extends to how deals are prepared. He says retailers have managed prices ahead of Black Friday to make subsequent reductions appear attractive while limiting the damage to profitability.

The commercial question is how much revenue a lower price genuinely adds. It also underlies the use of dynamic pricing as UK leisure sales weaken, although Hill’s proposal focuses on choosing which customers receive a retail discount.

The background

Asda was owned by Walmart when it introduced its UK Black Friday event in 2013. Hill describes the original approach as a publicity-led promotion built around substantial reductions on a limited selection of desirable, expensive products.

Media attention was intended to bring shoppers through the doors. According to Hill, that early approach produced a significant rise in visits and sales, although his commentary provides no figures for either measure.

He contrasts that short event with a discounting period that now extends across much of a month. Online spending has overtaken purchases in stores during Black Friday, he says, while Amazon’s Prime Day campaigns have influenced the wider promotional calendar.

Hill also cites investigations by consumer group Which? into whether Black Friday offers represent the best available prices. In the investigation he describes as taking place the previous year, every product examined had been available for the same price or less at another point. That finding concerns the researched products, not every Black Friday offer.

The argument for more selective promotional spending comes as retailers develop other ways to reach shoppers. Separately, UK retail media spending reached £2bn after a 32% increase, illustrating the scale of investment in that advertising market.

What people are saying

Hill’s alternative is to reserve some substantial discounts for customers whose purchasing history shows an established relationship with the retailer. His illustrative example is a £200 television reduction offered to 10% of a customer base, rather than to every shopper.

In that example, regular electricals buyers would receive a meaningful benefit for their previous custom. The retailer would limit the number of discounted transactions while encouraging the purchasing behaviour it wants to retain. The figures describe a proposed approach, not an announced HyperFinity or Asda campaign.

Hill does not argue that every widely available offer should disappear. He says recognisable products can still draw shoppers, but retailers must consider prices across the rest of their range to balance the margin surrendered on those lines.

His concern is that the current model benefits one-off buyers without sufficiently recognising customers likely to return after Christmas. He believes retailers have yet to implement the loyalty-led alternative effectively.

Protecting profitability is also part of the wider retail policy debate, with Marks & Spencer and John Lewis pressing for Budget tax relief. Hill’s proposal addresses promotional decisions within retailers’ control rather than changes to taxation.

What happens next

Hill identifies Black Friday 2026 as the point at which he wants retailers to adopt targeted promotions. He argues that businesses should plan around the combined seasonal increase in shopping associated with Black Friday and Christmas, rather than assuming that large public discounts are necessary to create all of that demand.

The commentary names no retailer committed to adopting his model and sets no implementation timetable. It remains a proposal to change how offers are allocated, not confirmation that Black Friday promotions will end or that customers will face new eligibility rules.