Massive spending spike predicted for Black Friday

Monday, October 22, 2018 - 10:50 by Simon Crisp

Black Friday is a little over a month away, with retailers gearing up to offer customers bargain prices for a short period in order to stimulate spending ahead of Christmas.

A study from Salmon has estimated that British shoppers will splash out £2.23 billion via safe shopping online over the course of the day, with each individual anticipated to commit an average of £90.

The under-35s should be bigger spenders than older consumers, with the typical outlay anticipated from millennials set at £154.

Regional differences were also noted, with those living in London occupying the higher echelons in terms of spending forecasts. Meanwhile it was residents of Norwich who proved to be the least interested in Black Friday, with average spending of just £40.50 on the cards.

Black Friday continues to play a role in determining how Brits prepare for the festive season, with 22 per cent of respondents to the report claiming that they will be doing the majority of their gift buying while there are bargains to be had within this limited window.

Of course there are yet more opportunities to cut Christmas costs ahead of the big day, with Cyber Monday representing yet another period within which major online shopping activity will take place.

The final interesting factor brought to light in this survey is that Women are planning to do more of their Black Friday shopping on the web than their male counterparts, with 49 per cent of females putting this as a priority. Only 46 per cent of men who plan to make Black Friday purchases will be doing so via e-commerce sites.

Hopefully retailers will be able to accommodate all of the customers once the sale gets underway, as in past years there have been issues with sluggish site performance and outages.