The nation shopped up a storm this Black Friday. But according new research, swathes of shoppers think that lots of Black Friday deals are artificial. Could retailers be doing more to assuage them that they’re getting a real deal?
Brits love a bargain and this Black Friday was no exception. Last week, data from the BRC confirming surges in all sectors for the weekend – boosted by the timing of payday weekend and early Christmas planning. But as much as consumers flocked to fill up their baskets online and in-store, there was also a healthy dose of scepticism that the deals they were buying were legitimate.
According to a consumer survey by Maru, despite more shoppers reporting that they would be looking for bargains on the weekend than not, 40% of UK shoppers don’t believe that Black Friday discounts of 50% or more are actually real.
The majority of shoppers also said that the purchases they were planning over Black Friday were buys that they had already been considering for some time, and they were waiting to nab at a discounted rate.
“While Black Friday remains one of the country’s biggest annual shopping events, our research suggests that shoppers are increasingly sceptical about the deals on offer and are instead waiting to see if items they are already considering will come down in price.” says Maru managing director Sarah Beams.
“As such Black Friday may in some cases be doing more to delay big purchases until later in the year rather than inspire more mass impulse shopping.”
Deeper discounts
The suspicions may have been solidified ahead of this year’s promotional weekend after consumer group Which? found that nine out of 10 Black Friday offers were cheaper or the same price at other times of the year.
And it seems the deeper the discount, the more likely there will be raised eyebrows as to its authenticity. This year, Temu’s Black Friday web traffic suffered following its promise of up to 90% off.
Data collected exclusively for Retail Week by Similarweb found the number of visits to Temu’s website dropped from 1 million last year to 666,000 in 2024.
In contrast, Currys went to particular lengths this year to assure shoppers they were getting a good deal. The electricals retailer hosted a wordy Guide to Black Friday on its website, which promised some of the best offers on TVs, appliances and more. It also marked some of its offers as “Black Friday and Beyond” so shoppers understood they could still shop the deal after the weekend, easing the pressure.
“The implication for many retailers is that they will need to do more to build trust in Black Friday deals to make them feel believable enough for consumers to buy into,” says Beams.
Black FridAI
It makes sense then that more shoppers than ever have turned to AI to help them find deals, and to make sure they’re actually getting a decent discount. According to Attest, this year 56% of AI users leveraged tools like ChatGPT to help them find bargains, while Boston Consulting Group found about two in five people planned to use AI or had already used it for their Black Friday shopping.
Amazon is also experimenting with AI to give shoppers assurance about the price of the products they’re planning to buy. Using AI chatbot Rufus, selected Amazon shoppers can now ask the bot to tell them the price history of a product over the last 30 days.
In a statement, the retailer said: “Over the past year, we’ve introduced a number of new generative AI-powered capabilities on Amazon’s store to make shopping even easier and more convenient for customers. Our AI-generated review highlights provide customers with common themes from dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of reviews at a glance to help them quickly understand customer insights.
“Customers in the US have already asked Rufus tens of millions of questions, and we’re excited to introduce it here too.”
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