Black Week: time for sales lovers

For years, Black Friday has attracted the interest of many British people. This shopping holiday, which comes from the United States, draws in crowds of consumers who are making the best of the discounts offered to them. That is why, seeing the interest of clients, stores decided to expand their offers for the entire week, not just Black Friday. Thanks to that, discount lovers can enjoy rebates from the Monday preceding Black Friday until Cyber Monday.

Picodi.com analytics decided to check the attitude of British shoppers toward Black Friday, where in the UK the interest in Black Week sales is the biggest, as well as how much money consumers spend and what they buy.

To buy or not to buy?

More than three-quarters of British respondents (77 per cent) took part in last year’s Black Friday sales. Although this number may surprise, in reality not all consumers participated in the sale on Black Friday itself. 67 per cent of shoppers decided to shop on Friday, but as much as 39 per cent did their shopping from Monday to Thursday, and 27 per cent enjoyed special offers over the weekend after Black Friday (Saturday and Sunday).

The vast majority of shoppers (88 per cent) was satisfied or rather satisfied with their Black Friday experiences. 11 per cent of respondents were rather unsatisfied, and the remaining 1 per cent was unsatisfied with their Black Friday shopping.

Among the people who did not take part in last year’s Black Friday, the most common reason (40 per cent of answers) was that they simply missed the event. 38 per cent of people taking part in the survey said that they did not know what Black Friday is at all. The remaining pointed out that the discounts were too low or that the products that they wanted to buy were not on sale (14 and 8 per cent respectively).

Cities where people love promotions

Based on online search queries, we found the cities where the interest in Black Friday sales increased the most from 2016 to 2019. Leicester took the first place with a 311 per cent increase. Bristol, where the increase of interest amounted to 124 per cent, placed second. Bradford and Edinburgh tied for the third place — in both these cities, the interest in discounts increased as much as 112 per cent.

The least interested in Black Friday sales are citizens of Cardiff where the number of search queries connected to Black Friday did not increase.

Big bucks

Statistically, British people spend £335 on Black Friday. It is worth noting that men spend a lot more money than women during Black Friday sales: £393 vs £297. It doesn’t necessarily mean that men buy more than women — they could just buy more expensive items.

When asked about Black Friday spending, many respondents claimed they are going to spend a similar amount as last year (31 per cent). More than half is planning to spend more (51 per cent), and 18 per cent is going to spend less money than last Black Friday.

People who are going to spend more usually justified their answers by the fact that they are going to buy more products this year (53 per cent indicated such reason). 49 per cent is planning to buy some expensive item this year, such as electronics or home appliances, and 12 per cent is going to buy more luxurious products than last year. On the other hand, among the people who are planning to spend less, 28 per cent said that their smaller budget is caused by job loss. 34 per cent is not planning expensive shopping this year, and 33 per cent prefers to set money aside for a rainy day.

Selling like hotcakes

Invariably, electronics are among the products which rule during Black Friday sales. It is the most frequently chosen category of products — 39 per cent of consumers will buy electronics. Clothes (38 per cent) was the second top category, while and shoes and home appliances tied for the third place (24 per cent each).

Food on delivery was next with 18 per cent, followed by cosmetics (17 per cent). Groceries were less popular during Black Week (15 per cent), similarly to child care articles or sports items (13 per cent each). Books rounded out the top ten categories with 11 per cent.

With Picodi you can save not only during the Black Friday, but also throughout the year. You can combine discount codes with our cashback service to save up even more in shops such as Currys, Appliances Direct, eBuyer, Hughes and CCL. You just need to sign up to Picodi.com and activate cashback before shopping.

Methodology

All statistical data comes from Picodi.com, a global discount platform operating since 2010. The survey conducted in September 2020 was also used in the report.

Public Use

Would you like to share information about Black Week with your readers? All the data and infographics presented in this report can be freely used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.