New research from VoucherCodes.co.uk, and the Centre for Retail Research reveals that Brits will be spending an impressive £1.96 billion on Black Friday this year, up 19 per cent on last year and equating to a massive £2,313,760per minute. Falling on Friday 25th November, Black Friday kicks off a four-day sales weekend for 14 million shoppers in Britain - with UK sales accounting for 60 per cent of total Black Friday expenditure across Europe this year.
Big ticket spending online
Black Friday deals are no longer confined to high street shoppers, despite traditionally being hailed as an in-store savings day. The report reveals that 37 per cent of Brits will be logging on from the comfort of their homes this year to avoid the crowds and bag the best bargains online. Online spend for Black Friday this year is expected to reach a massive £1 billion, up 16 per cent from 2015 (£853m). In contrast, the majority of Brits (63 per cent) will still be shopping on the high street, but spending a lower total of £961m - suggesting that Brits prefer to make those big ticket purchases online versus in-store.
The report also highlights the continued rise in popularity for mCommerce amongst British consumers, this year a massive 59 per cent of Black Friday’s online sales are set to be made via a mobile device – accounting for £591 million of the total spend on 25th November.
Timing is everything
Brits are known for braving early starts in aid of bagging themselves a great deal and VoucherCodes.co.uk customers are no different. Last Black Friday, pre-work bargain hunters were behind the biggest spike in visitors to the site - with 8am proving to be the peak time for savvy shoppers hunting down the best deals over their morning cup of coffee. The data reveals that Brits are willing to get up increasingly early each year to seek out that all important deal, in 2014 website traffic spiked at 8.36am and it was a more laid-back 9.52am in 2013.
Savvy Savers
The four-day shopping bonanza from Black Friday through to Cyber Monday was one of the biggest weekends of the year for discounts on VoucherCodes.co.uk in 2015. Over the course of cyber weekend, the VoucherCodes.co.uk team added over 7,000 offers to the site, equating to an average of 100 new deals every hour. With purchases from department stores, women’s fashion outlets, health & beauty and electronics topping the list of popular Black Friday purchases made last year, on Cyber Weekend 2015 VoucherCodes.co.uk members collectively saved a whopping £915,000 - the biggest saving made by a VoucherCodes.co.uk customer in one transaction amounted to a hefty £788. This year, VoucherCodes.co.uk predicts its members could save a massive £388,000 on Black Friday alone – up 8.5 per cent from 2015.
“The demand for Black Friday deals has gone through the roof in recent years, with savvy shoppers taking advantage of the opportunity to get a great deal on everything from toys to tech ahead of Christmas. Last year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever in the UK, British shoppers splurged a total of £1.65bn snapping-up bargains in the 24 hour period and we saw 397 per cent more visitors to VoucherCodes.co.uk on the day itself compared to the average day in 2015, ” said Claire Davenport, Managing Director at VoucherCodes.co.uk.
“This year, whilst growth in spending is supposed to be slightly more modest compared to previous years (our research predicts a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in spending for Black Friday) the date will be a key one for shoppers and retailers alike.”
