Black Friday largely an online affair in the UK

Black Friday was of little help to the struggling UK high street. Brick and mortar stores have seen a 5.4 percent decline in footfall, according to retail software company Springboard. Shopping centres were the most hit, with a drop of 8.3 percent in attendance last Friday in comparison to the year before. While payment processor Barclaycard registered a 10 percent increase in credit card transactions this Black Friday, consumers spent on average 12 percent less than last year, suggesting they are more likely to use Black Friday to buy small treats than to make big purchases.

To Diane Wehrle, Springboard’s Insights Director, these results are “a reflection of the larger discounts offered online”. She said in an email to FashionUnited that online shops are also seen as more convenient because they are open 24 hours a day and it is much faster to compare deals on the Internet. Users can also count on many e-commerce websites to take part in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which gives them more time to shop.

While the extended discounts may be an advantage for online retailers, the same cannot be said about physical stores. Many brick and mortar retailers started offering discounts earlier in the week this year, which may have contributed to the decreased footfall. “Shoppers might be a little more relaxed about making big-ticket purchases on the day itself”, Konrad Kelling, Barclaycard’s Managing Director, told the Financial Times. “Given that Black Friday discounts were made available throughout the week in advance of the day itself, and have continued over the weekend, it is likely that the impetus to make purchases will largely be over”, pondered Wehrle.

Photo: FashionUnited