Black Friday spending and footfall failed to live up to the retailer’s hype this year, according to preliminary data.
Purchase volumes on Black Friday increased by 2% compared with 2022 and were 12% higher than a typical Friday in 2023, data from Nationwide found.
In total, 9.92 million Nationwide transactions took place during the commercial holiday, although the bank was quick to point out how this figure could weaken over time.
Mark Nalder, director of payment strategy at Nationwide said: “While most will be happy with their purchases, others are likely to regret their impulse buys and it's likely we will see a few refunds into customers’ accounts over the next few days and weeks.”
Barclays reiterated this trend with its own analysis, which found that its transaction volumes had slowed by more than 0.5% compared to 2022.
“This dip in sales volumes year-on-year is perhaps expected given the impact of the cost-of-living on Brits' discretionary spending and the trend towards launching discounts earlier in November," Marc Pettican, head of Barclaycard payments said.
Footfall during the discount event failed to outperform 2022’s figures, despite it coming in close to 12% higher than the week before, data from MRI Software revealed.
Over the entire Black Friday week, footfall increased by 2% year-on-year and by 7.9% week-on-week.
Cyber Monday, Black Friday’s e-commerce cousin, takes place today and is expected to bring with it a jump in digital sales for global retailers.
Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Expectations are high for volumes on Cyber Monday, with signs that shoppers have ringfenced budgets to take advantage of the wave of deals.
“How these spending patterns will wash up overall isn’t clear, with the discount window for the promotional event even wider this year, and it could herald a weaker period in the run-up to Christmas.”
Updated 15:46 - added Barclaycard data