Some retailers may have given up the ghost on Black Friday last year but the figures don’t lie: brands stretching sales in the UK across multiple days saw significant increases in spend during that period compared with those who shunned the phenomenon.
Asda’s decision to become the first retailer to ditch the one-day bargains – it spread its £26m worth of offers throughout the festive period – looks likely to have paid off. Brands which extended offers saw a 55% spend increase in the week of Black Friday, compared with the previous week. In contrast, spend on brands which limited sales to just Black Friday increased by 21%. The week prior, week commencing November 19, also saw a spending boost of 13% for brands extending Black Friday, up on the 8% increase seen by other retailers.
Overall, spending was up 38% in the week of Black Friday compared with the previous week. This is down on the same weeks last year, which saw a 48% increase.
The findings also shed light on how last year’s Black Friday became a busier shopping week than the run-up to Christmas. Last year, spend during the week of Black Friday was 18% higher than the week before Christmas.
The data comes from Cardlytics, a purchase-based data company, which has analysed the spending behaviour and shopping habits of 17 million active accounts of banking customers around Black Friday.
Cardlytics UK managing director Jill Dougan said: “Black Friday remains a significant moment on the UK shopping calendar and its transformation into “Black Friday Week” is clearly proving popular with shoppers. These findings show the size of the opportunity for brands to engage with new and existing customers.”
The findings also show how the number of shopping trips increased by 18% during the week of Black Friday, however, shoppers are obviously wising up as this was down significantly on the 27% increase seen last year in the same week.
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