Black Friday has transformed from a sales day in the US to a global sales-growth opportunity, raising the competition for merchants to rival for consumers’ wallets. Some sellers start promotions on Thursday, others run presales as early as Mondays as a differentiating tactic in an effort to outmanoeuvre the competition.
In the United Kingdom, Google Trends data for 19-25 November 2018 shows that one-third of all queries related to Black Friday sales were recorded on Friday at 33.9%. Nevertheless, the interest of customers starts to grow on Wednesday and fades on Saturday. This tendency is characteristic for not only the UK but other countries as well.
The research conducted by Black-Friday.Global in 2018 shows that 95% of surveyed British people are aware of the existence of Black Friday. However, not all of them were able to recall the exact date, which may explain the gradual increase of interest in this event even a few weeks before it takes place.
The internal Black-Friday.Global data for 2018 in the United Kingdom shows a 1708% increase in sales compared to an ordinary day. Such high numbers are not uncommon. For example, in Ireland, the increase is 1852%, in South Africa — over 1952%, and in Germany — over 2418%.
This report was created based on data provided by Picodi.com – a global discounts provider existing since 2010. Black-Friday.Global – dedicated to Black Friday deals – was created by Picodi.com. Some 12,000 participants from 55 countries took part in the survey.
Unlike the United States, citizens of other countries do not usually have a day off on Black Friday. Although peaks of online shopping activity in various countries are slightly different, generally they fall on the morning and evening.
On the British Internet, the intensity of shopping was distributed quite evenly between 8 am and 11 pm, with peaks between 5 and 8 pm according to Black-Friday.
When shopping online during Black Friday, more than half (54.9% of British customers used smartphones, 38.6% preferred desktops, and the remaining 6.4% chose tablets.
On the other hand, in countries like Turkey, Finland, Greece, Singapore, or Hong Kong, Black Friday seems to have been much-anticipated — basing on the fact that most of the shopping was done right after midnight.
Level of discounts versus shoppers’ expectations
Statistical data from the past few years show that an average Black Friday discount in the UK has slightly increased from 62% in 2017 to 63% in 2018. Interestingly, these numbers exceed expectations of British consumers who get ready for 49% markdowns.
Shoppers from Belarus, Greece and Peru expect higher price reductions at 62% Unfortunately, local stores are only able to offer discounts which are 8-10 percentage points lower than those anticipated by customers. On the other hand, monitoring the deals from stores in Ukraine, RSA and the Philippines shows that merchants in these countries are prepared to offer far more attractive discounts, exceeding the expectations of shoppers.
Black Friday spending
British people are planning on taking part in both online and brick-and-mortar sales. Those who will choose more than one channel are ready to spend around £315. It is equivalent to €351. In other countries, shoppers have a smaller budget in mind, like Germans (€211), Italians (€203) or Russians (€120). In contrast, consumers who declare to spend record-breaking amounts come from the USA (€429) and Canada (€381).
3 Responses
Black Friday 2019 should be a lot stronger than the previous 2 years as the period lands after most salaried people get paid. Last year and the previous year the way Black Friday and Cyber Monday landed it was before people had the money available to spend. We should see an increase in the buying trend compared to the last 2 years.
What do others think?
@Mark Quite possibly right, however, the one downside this year is that there are only 3 weeks between Black Friday and Christmas
Will that have a counter effect on sales, or will we just take 4 weeks of sales in 3 weeks?
We do not offer any Black Friday deals, we just see it as the start of Xmas shopping en masse
@tyler That is a fair point. We are the same re-deals. We have tried in the past but people are really after the big-ticket items. We find that sales rocket as soon as payday hits so it could be a very intense 3 weeks. Hopefully, carriers etc have forecast for the changing way it lands this year as it will be similar to 2016 in trend.