UK consumers to take time off for Black Friday shopping, fashion is key purchase

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 16, 2018

UK consumers continue to be focused on Black Friday shopping with many being so keen on the potential bargains they could pick up that large numbers of them are planning to take time off work to shop.

Their product focus for the day will include tech products, but fashion will be in second place and cosmetics will also be high on their priority lists.

In a survey of 2,000 people, some 49% of those who plan to shop on Black Friday said they will take some time off work, the research by digital commerce platform Koomoo showed. Some 24% will be taking off both Black Friday and Cyber Monday with 17% booking a single day off.

Not that this means they’ll be going to physical shops in large numbers. Instead they’ll be largely online and overall, those planning to go into work on those days will spend almost 20 minutes of company time browsing for deals – and 16% will spend an hour.

Only 18% of people will shop on the High Street on Black Friday, with 48% opting to shop via laptop, 44% via desktop and 34% on their phone.

The average Black Friday shopper expects to spend £252 before Black Friday and will spend £427 in total for the mini season, although 56% of shoppers say they’ve spent more than expected on previous Black Fridays with only 27% sticking to their budget. Men are bigger Black Friday spenders, expecting to spend an average of £532 compared to £312 for women.

And millennials will splash out more than any other age group, spending £650 per head on average. Peak time for shopping on the day will be 9.21 a.m.

As mentioned, tech is the most popular (59%) item to buy on Black Friday, followed by clothes (43%), homewares (34%) and cosmetics (27%). Some 49% of men plan to buy clothes on Black Friday and 67% of women.

But it seems that consumers are more focused on some kind of deal than on buying something specific. The survey showed that only 51% of shoppers make a shopping list before going online bargain hunting, and 28% have a vague idea of what they want – but 21% buy whatever items they like the look of at the time. Meanwhile, 35% of people will buy whatever deal seems the best – regardless of what the item is.