Black Friday tops Cyber Monday as UK’s busiest e-commerce period

Friday, December 5, 2014 - 09:39 by Graham Miller

The rise of Black Friday as a retail event in the UK has been significant in the past couple of years. And now figures from Big Blue suggest that it was even more popular amongst consumers carrying out safe shopping online than Cyber Monday, according to V3.co.uk.

Perhaps most significant of all was the news that Black Friday was dominated by mobile usage, with 59.8 per cent of traffic being generated by portable gadgets. So the use of smartphones and tablets to shop online is now capable of taking the majority share of web usage during busy periods.

Sales were up by 91 per cent on Black Friday 2014 when compared to the same day last year, while the more established Cyber Monday event saw a rise of 22 per cent.

Analysts found that people were spending more on average on Black Friday compared with Cyber Monday, with typical orders containing close to 3 items and costing around £89.

Interestingly, the popularity of Apple's iPhone and iPad meant that, in total, a little over a third of all sales made online on Black Friday originated from devices running iOS.

Meanwhile, Android accounted for just 16 per cent of sales, which indicates that even with the greater number of Google-powered devices in use, it is not used by people who are as willing to shop online as Apple fans.

Those who did make purchases from either mobile platform had very similar habits, with average spending both hovering around the £89 mark, with Android actually a few pence ahead in this respect.

Although it generated a lot of controversy on the high street, Black Friday was a bit of a coup for online retailers, even if it did take the wind out of Cyber Monday’s sails.