Black Friday was huge this year as bargain hunters hit the streets (and the sites) on a mission to get the bulk of their Christmas gift shopping behind them. But is Black Friday’s gain at the expense of the crucial shopping spend in the weeks before Christmas?
This year retail enjoyed one of the most popular Black Friday sales periods in recent years. According to the BRC, non-food sales climbed 5.5%, in-store sales increased 4.1%, and online sales jumped 7.2%, while the overall penetration rate of sales was 45.5%.
“Retail parks and shopping centres saw the biggest surge of customers over the Black Friday weekend, with overall footfall rising 6.7% on Black Friday week as compared to the previous year.” says BRC director of insight Kris Hamer.
“The increased traffic helped retailers gain a much-needed Black Friday boost, non-food sales climbed 5.5%, helped by its closer proximity to Christmas this year. Black Friday remains an omnichannel event, but online growth still showed the biggest gains in the final week, with computing, fashion and beauty among the most popular categories.”
Sales data from Nationwide showed a 16% increase in online card transactions at the end of Black Friday, compared to 2023 – covering a total of 7.39 million transactions through that bank alone.
But is margin-eroding Black Friday’s gain at the expense of the crucial shopping spend in the weeks before Christmas?
If you ask PwC, not exactly. According to its latest Festive Predictions Survey, after a few years of tight budgeting, Brits are still expected to enjoy one of the most ‘normal’ Christmases we’ve seen in recent years.
In fact, UK consumers are expected to spend £22.7bn on gifts and other products to help them make the most of the festivities this year – an increase of 5% on last year.
Spending per consumer is predicted to jump from £416 to £433, which will overtake any spend we’ve seen in the last two years and be more in line with the first post-pandemic Christmas of 2021.
According to PwC’s survey, it will be the retailers that resonate with middle-aged consumers (and those who buy gifts for them) that will benefit from the rise. People aged between 45-54 are expected to spend the most of any age group, an estimated £463 on presents per person, while 29% of 18-24 year-olds also plan to spend more, followed by 25% of 35-44 year-olds.
Grocers are set to benefit most from the climb and for those people in the 45-54 age group and above, food and drink is said to be the top spending priority, while the under 25s are prioritising fashion.
Despite roundly being the most popular category during the promotional weekend, the success of the Black Friday hasn’t hampered the electricals and technology sector, which has jumped from customers’ ninth most important category to the fifth in 2024 and is set to be the top spending category for 35-44 year-olds.
And it seems the boom hasn’t impacted the perfomance of one of the biggest players in the market. Currys chief executive Alex Baldock says that so far Christmas trading was in line with expectations and he was “confident that we’ll be able to keep our promises of continuing to grow profits and cash flow this year”.
On the top sellers of Christmas so far, Baldock states: “Air fryers are flying off the shelves, curved monitors and consoles are doing well. Hair stylers like the Shark five-in-one, noise-cancelling headphones, drones are flying – if you pardon the pun – and our 98-inch-plus TVs are also doing well. AI is a trend that’s building some momentum, both in laptops, where we enjoy over 75% market share, but also increasingly in mobile as well. So, there’s a lot flying off the shelves.”
Despite what PwC calls a “modest increase in planned outlay over the festive period,” it said that consumers’ net spending intentions are more positive this Christmas than in 2023 and 2022 across all major categories.
“After volume declines for most non-food categories in 2024, it is good to see a relatively strong end to the year with increased spending over Black Friday, which is expected to continue over the festive period,” says PwC lead of industry for consumer markets Lisa Hooker.
“Despite better economic indicators and growing disposable income, consumers have been showing a level of caution across autumn. With the Budget behind us, more certainty on taxes and a desire to make time together more special, we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook.
“As usual the winning category is food and drink with growth in the premium ranges exceeding value ranges as customers want to selectively treat themselves and their families. It is encouraging to see clothing and electricals increase in importance as we dress for disruption-free Christmas celebrations and embrace the latest technology trends.”
The nation being more upbeat about Christmas this year also bodes well for impulse shopping, which was, in part, understood to be relatively unexploited during Black Friday this year.
According to market research company Maru, while more shoppers than not participated in Black Friday this year (47% v 33%), more than half of them were planning to purchase an item they had already been considering for some time at a discounted rate, and just 25% of shoppers intended to make a purchase based on browsing the deals on offer.
So, as long as retailers can keep pace with a merrier, value-seeking nation, Black Friday’s boom will most likely not result in a Christmas bust.
No comments yet