Visits to UK retail stores and shopping centres on Black Friday decreased by -3.1% this Black Friday, 24th November, compared to 2022, as shoppers shifted Black Friday spend to earlier discounting events as well as taking advantage of the extended deals and promotions being offered by retailers, according to research from Sensormatic Solutions.
The company’s data from its Sensormatic IQ platform, which captures 40 billion shopper visits globally each year, showed that while footfall was down, the discounting event did deliver a week-on-week boost to shopper traffic, rising +52.4% compared to the Friday prior (17th November).
While high streets and shopping centres struggled, retail parks defied the year-on-year Black Friday footfall decline, with store visits rising +1.9% compared to 2022.
This could be attributed to the mix of both big box and discount retailers making up their retail offer, giving shoppers a ‘one stop shop’ for deals.
With PwC anticipating that consumer spending on Black Friday will fall by a quarter, dropping from £7.1 billion in 2022 to £5.6 billion in 2023, cost-of-living pressures, along with the event falling ahead of regular monthly paydays, likely impacted shopper demand.
Additionally, according to Sensormatic, consumers have opted to shop earlier to spread the cost of Christmas.
Research of over 1,000 Brits showed that 70% had already started Christmas shopping ahead of the Black Friday weekend, while 55% planned to kick things off earlier to spread the cost of Christmas over more paydays, rising to 61% of Millennials.
Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic Solutions’ EMEA Retail Consultant, comments: “For many retailers Black Friday remains one of their biggest discounting events of the year, but it seems the advent of Black Friday no longer marks the start of Christmas shopping for consumers.”
“In a bid to make squeezed household budgets work harder, we’re seeing shoppers starting gift buying earlier to spread the cost of Christmas. Additionally, new and earlier discounting events, such as Amazon Prime’s Big Deals Day in October, and extended promotional periods offered by retailers, are also bringing festive spend forwards.”
“Many retailers, including Amazon and Argos, started Black Friday sales a week ahead of the ‘official’ date, but some retailers, including Currys, were already offering deals from the beginning of November, extending discounts to win share of wallet and that coveted Christmas spend.”
Deck the halls with bags of bargains!🎁👇
— Currys (@currys) November 24, 2023
On the plus side, the Saturday of the Black Friday weekend (25th November) was still expected to be the third busiest day for footfall during 2023 peak trading, according to a Sensormatic report.
It expects ‘Super Saturday’ (23rd December), the last Saturday before Christmas, to be the busiest in-store shopping day of the entire 2023 peak trading season, rising from the UK’s third busiest day for Christmas shopping in 2022.
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