Smart ways to manage retail spend during peak season 

October is here, and the busiest retail season is just weeks away. From Black Friday to Christmas, retailers face unpredictable purchases, last-minute promotions, and mounting pressure to stand out this time of year.”  

This is the season where profit and chaos go hand in hand. So how do leading retailers stay agile, without losing visibility over spend? 

High stakes and higher expectations 

According to the Office for National Statistics, UK retail sales volumes rose by 13.7% in November 2023 compared with the previous month, driven by early Black Friday promotions and Christmas shopping demand, fuelled by early Black Friday deals and festive shopping. That kind of growth is enticing, but it does not come cheap. It takes investment in everything from merchandising to media buying and often occurs with short notice. 

Equally, post-holiday pedestrian traffic trends offer one clear indicator of the stakes involved. For instance, in January 2025, footfall surged 6.6% year‑on‑year, with retail parks leading at +7.9%, high streets at +4.5%, and shopping centres at +7.4%. That kind of demand means retail teams need to plan ahead, especially while key decision-makers and staff are away over the holidays. 

Window displays need updating, ad budgets need boosting, and team travel ramps up. Local store managers often need to make fast decisions to keep up with demand. Without the right systems in place, these decisions lead to uncontrolled, decentralised spend and reactive admin for finance. 

The cost of poor spend visibility 

According to Soldo’s 2025 Productivity at Work report: 

• 76% of senior leaders admit they missed growth opportunities because employees did not have access to budget in time 
• 71% of finance teams say slow processes stop them from supporting the wider business 
• 40% of employees say productivity would increase with better access to company money 

For retail, that could mean a missed pop-up opportunity. A delayed launch. Or a window display arriving too late to make an impact. 

How Retailers are Solving this with Spend Management Tools 

More retailers are investing in spend management platforms like Soldo to manage the speed and scale of seasonal spending without losing control. 

Brooks Running, a retail brand that sells online and supplies stores across the UK and Europe, replaced a paper-based expense process with Soldo’s platform. Now, teams can make business-critical purchases quickly, while finance has real-time oversight and only needs to intervene when spend is noncompliant. 

Coffee #1, with over 100 locations across the high street, needed a better way to manage day-to-day operational spend at the store level, from stock top-ups to emergency repairs. With Soldo cards and company wallets, each store operates within guardrails, and finance can see everything in one place. 

The business case for a more agile approach to spend 

A recent IDC report shows how finance teams across Europe are grappling with fragmented, manual processes. 60% say they are stuck in day-to-day admin instead of improving systems or supporting strategy. 

With Soldo, retailers can: 

• Track spend in real time across stores, campaigns, and departments 
• Empower teams to act fast within preset budgets 
• Capture receipts instantly and tag expenses by location, channel, or purpose 
• Automate reconciliation and integrate with accounting systems 

It is not just about tracking spend, it is about managing it proactively. 

What Happens Without a Spend Management System? 

• Missed campaign deadlines 
• Overspending during peak periods 
• Slow month-end close 
• Employee frustration from reimbursement delays 
• Lost revenue opportunities when finance holds up decision-making 

And all of that hits hardest in Q4, when retail businesses make the bulk of their annual profit. 

Spend management isn’t just seasonal 

While Black Friday and Christmas dominate the retail calendar, the challenges of managing decentralised spend do not stop when the decorations come down. Seasonal promotions may ease, but retailers still face constant pressures: preparing for January sales, launching spring collections, and investing in store improvements. Without clear visibility, even routine spending can eat into margins or slow decision-making. 

That is why Soldo is not just a tool for the peak season. It is a year-round solution that helps finance teams keep control while giving retail staff the autonomy to act fast. From window displays in February to back-to-school campaigns in August, spend management is not just seasonal, it is strategic. And with Soldo, retailers can make every month as well-managed as the busiest one.