Black Friday lives up to expectations online

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - 12:57 by Graham Miller

Although the impact of Black Friday on the high street may have been muted, the event managed to get millions of Brits to spend money shopping online, with early stats suggesting that it was another record-breaking day for e-commerce.

Department store giant, John Lewis, confirmed that it saw higher online sales on the 25th of November this year than it has on any single day in the past. Year on year, it saw a 6.5 per cent increase in sales activity, according to Internet Retailing.

The biggest rise was seen in the sale of electrical goods, with a healthy 11 per cent annual increase reported, as people chose to buy big ticket items like HD TVs ahead of the festive season.

Data from Affiliate Window suggests that overall there was a 27 per cent increase in the number of people carrying out shopping online during Black Friday this year. And, interestingly, around 42 per cent of purchases were made from portable devices including smartphones and tablets, again showcasing the growing influence of shopping online on the move.

Meanwhile, there have been reports of footfall on the high street falling by almost a tenth, in spite of the fact that hundreds of outlets were open earlier than usual in order to cope with the anticipated rush.

Images from around the world showed that Black Friday is still having a big impact in the bricks and mortar market, but the UK is bucking the trend thanks to its web-savvy consumers, who would rather find a bargain online than brave the cold November weather to pick it out in person.

This trend is likely to be reflected over the Christmas shopping season as a whole, with e-commerce set to flourish as the high street flounders.