Black Friday spending up by a tenth despite streets being quieter

Pre-Black Friday spending rose on last year, a welcome boost for under-pressure retailers, but slightly fewer shoppers hit the high street.

Online retailers have witnessed a marked increase in spending as many of them rolled out a range of offers to tempt shoppers on the busy shopping day.

Nationwide Building Society said its customers had processed 5.24 million transactions as of 2pm on Friday; This represented a 12% increase on Black Friday last year.

This represents an 18% increase over average Friday activity, he added.

Mark Nalder, director of payment strategy at Nationwide Building Society, said: “Due to the strong sales over the last few hours, this year’s Black Friday is in line with our expectation that this will be the busiest shopping day in history for our customers.

“However, it is important that people continue to shop within their means and not buy items just because they are on sale.

“It will be interesting in the coming days and weeks to see how busy retailers’ returns departments are, as many people are experiencing buyer’s remorse after snapping up so many discounts.”

On the other hand, buy now-pay later specialist Klarna reported an even bigger increase in transactions during the day.

It said sales in the first 12 hours were up 26% compared to last year’s Black Friday, due to increased activity in the early hours as shoppers compete for the best deals.

Klarna added that its initial data shows that Adidas Samba sneakers are among the most popular products so far.

On the high street, footfall to UK retail outlets was slightly lower than on last year’s Black Friday.

Data from MRI Software showed that visitor numbers were down 0.5% year-on-year as of 1pm on Black Friday.

However, it increased by 11.2% compared to Friday last week, as the shopping opportunity attracted more people to stores.

Malls saw a particular boost last Friday, reporting a 17% increase.

Jenni Matthews, director of marketing and insights at MRI Software, said: “For many people, payday will have fallen today, which could be their last payday before Christmas, so today’s Black Friday sales will give them plenty of opportunities to take advantage of festive discounts, which This will be valid once again, which is positive news for retailers and entertainment companies.”