Black Friday 2019 Predicted to Be Bigger Than Ever

Thursday, November 21, 2019 - 22:18 by David Aiken

On the 29th of November this year consumers from the UK are anticipated to splash out over £2.5 billion in just 24 hours, with the entire Black Friday weekend sales event, including Cyber Monday, projected to draw in almost £8.6 billion in spending.

This represents a 3.4 per cent uptick in activity, with both sites offering safe shopping online and stores operating on the high street set to benefit from the consumer splurge that is on the horizon.

The figures, published by the Centre for Retail Research, also reveal that the UK will lead other European nations when it comes to Black Friday spending, with close to £2.5 million passing through digital and physical checkouts every minute during the four days that the event is set to run.

Researchers believe that more people will make Black Friday purchases in-store this year than via the web, although the gap between the two platforms is closing and e-commerce sites will see strong growth of over eight per cent, while the high street is likely to actually experience a slight dip in sales compared with the same period in 2018.

Part of the reason that online shopping is becoming more web-focused is that it is gaining traction with younger shoppers, especially Millennials. Almost half of people in this age group said that they were going to spend more during Black Friday this year than they did before.

The fact that Brits spend more on Black Friday than every other European nation has a lot to do with the influence of online shopping and the fact that this sales event has been adopted more enthusiastically over here. In spite of political uncertainty and economic concerns, consumers in the UK are set to break records once again.