Traditionally, both in the UK and US, Black Friday was reserved for retailers with brick-and-mortar stores to showcase their best in-store deals. Since then, Black Friday has morphed into ‘Black Friday Weekend’ – but for many retailers both online and offline lasts even longer, with an increasing number starting their deals the week before the Friday and ending them a week after Cyber Monday – 18 days in total!
This might explain why, for yet another year, footfall in-store fell for retailers on Black Friday. The Guardian reported that Britain’s online retailers won the battle for sales on Black Friday, with overall spending up on a year ago despite a drop in the number of shoppers visiting stores.
Shoppers were predicted to spend more than £2.5bn on Black Friday itself – but the final results are yet to be announced.
Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all debit and credit card transactions in the UK, estimated that overall Black Friday spending finished up 8% on 2016, while shopping footfall analysts found that high-street footfall was down 8%.
Online Activity – Trends
In terms of Google search volume in the UK, on-the-day ‘Googling’ of terms relating to ‘Black Friday’ actually peaked back in 2014 (although remained high in 2017) – showing that we are increasingly spreading our interest in deals (and consequently our spending) over a longer period.
Interestingly, the number of shoppers online between midnight and 7am was 24% lower than last year, according to the e-commerce trends service PCA Predict. But, by 5.30pm the number of shoppers online was up 3% year on year. PCA also reported an 11% rise in shopping over the previous week.
This shows that shoppers no longer feel the urgency to secure deals that used to be associated with ‘Black Friday’ and that they increasingly expect to have access to these deals for a longer period of time.
Retailers that left their Black Friday offers to the last minute and limited the time they were ‘live’ may find results disappointing this year, as it’s important to remember that each consumer will have their own spending limits allocated to their Black Friday / Cyber Monday spending – and getting in there first could help you as a retailer to secure a chunk of that pot of cash.
At AlphaGraphics, we specialise in helping retail businesses deliver data-driven, automated marketing campaigns to improve lead generation and conversions. To find out more, visit: https://retail.alphagraphics.co.uk/
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