With the UK’s adoption of Black Friday now in its fourth year, more consumers than ever before are planning to shop, showing the shopping event is now solidified in the UK’s calendar.

New research from TopCashback.co.uk, the UK’s most generous cashback shopping site, reveals only 14 per cent of consumers in the west midlands are not planning to shop on Black Friday. Furthermore, of those shopping, only 18 per cent will be doing so for the first time.

Nearly half (45 per cent) of consumers in the west midlands are waiting for Black Friday sales to buy a big-ticket item they want or need. More than two-fifths (44 per cent) have been holding-off since September, 15 per cent since August, and 22 per cent have even been biding their time since April or earlier in the year.

Consumers are also planning on spending less this year than they did last year. In 2016 consumers were prepared to spend £539, and this year are expecting to spend £331, a £208 decrease. But, consumers are looking for a £66 saving and 96 per cent will be looking for additional savings such as cashback and voucher codes as they look to spend less.

Black Friday 2017 is also shaping up to be a truly online event as only one per cent of shopper’s plan to shop exclusively in-store. Instead, nearly a third (31 per cent) will go both in store and online and nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) will only be shopping online.

Consumers in the west midlands will be stocking up on clothes (41 per cent) this Black Friday, closely followed by toys (23 per cent), beauty (21 per cent), home goods (17 per cent) and a further 17 per cent will be looking for TV’s and laptops.

Adam Bullock, UK Director of TopCashback.co.uk, said: “Black Friday was originally presented to the UK with images of people rushing around shops fighting over TV’s and electricals. But, now three years on, Black Friday is largely an online event. In fact, last year for the first time we saw more people logging-on to buy from their mobile or tablets than desktops.

“It’s not all TVs and tech either, different types of companies are keen to drive pre-Christmas profits and therefore offer major discounts. There are some great deals to be had on mobile, TV and broadband contracts as well as travel and fashion. However, consumers are keen to get better deals and are increasingly looking to cashback sites and voucher codes to save even more money. Last year we saw £39.5 million pounds being spent through TopCashback during the Black Friday period, meaning on top of the saving offered by the retailer we helped our members save £2.6 million.”