Number of online retailer visits during Black Friday and Cyber Week in the UK in 2018

Black Friday is typically one of the busiest shopping days of the year with deals offered to shoppers both in store and online. Traditionally observed by the US the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday has been popular in the UK since 2013 and occurs on the last week of November. Cyber Week, which went from November 19 to 26 in the UK in 2018, is similar to Black Friday except shopping only occurs online. In 2018, during Black Friday and Cyber Week in the UK, the retailers with the highest number of visits to their websites were department stores. On Black Friday, approximately 79.3 million people visited department store retailer websites. Whereas during Cyber Week, an astonishing 486.1 million people visited the websites of department stores. Another popular online retailer category was apparel and accessories, which had 37.9 million visits on Black Friday and over 200 million visits during the entire Cyber Week in 2018.

Popularity of Black Friday in the UK

Out of many European countries, the UK has some of the highest participation rates in Black Friday shopping. In 2018, it was expected that per person spending in the UK during Black Friday would be the highest out of twelve countries measures at 346 euros, or around 300 British Pounds. Similarly, in another survey conducted on the share of UK consumers participating in Black Friday in 2018, the UK was ranked third out of 21 countries, with 64 percent of UK citizens stating they planned to participate. The high participation rate of Black Friday in the UK could be due to the larger than average discount rate offered by UK retailers. In 2018, UK retailers offered the best discount out of eight countries surveyed, at an average discount of 63 percent. This is 10 percent higher than Germany’s second place average discount rate.

Leading Black Friday and Cyber Week items

In line with the online popularity of department stores and apparel & accessories mentioned above, these items were rated as the most popular items consumers planned on shopping for over Black Friday/Cyber Week in the UK. In 2018, 24 percent of consumers stated they would shop for clothing, footwear or accessories and 23 percent intended to shop for personal gadgets such as smartphones and tablets and home electronics such as TVs and speakers.