Black Friday in the United Kingdom (UK) - Statistics and Facts

Black Friday, which started as an American tradition, has become one of the biggest dates in the retail calendar, with retailers hoping to benefit from increased traffic and consumers hunting for a bargain. Black Friday takes place in the fourth week of November, the day after Thanksgiving, which means it falls on November 24th in 2023, although, special deals are spread across the entire weekend (also known as Black or Cyber Weekend) and Monday (Cyber Monday).

Enthusiasm for Black Friday

Black Friday is a tradition that consumers have warmly embraced in the United Kingdom, with almost all consumers knowing at least a little about the event. This knowledge translates into action as, in a 2023 survey, almost two-thirds of respondents said that they would definitely or probably shop during the November sales events. In the UK, the timing of Black Friday has most relevance for its proximity to Christmas, offering consumers the chance to save money on their Christmas gifts. Indeed, finding Christmas presents for loved ones was the leading reason UK consumers planned to shop during Black Friday in 2023, with over half of consumers listing this as a motivation. Spontaneous deal grabbing was the second-most popular answer at roughly one-third of survey respondents.

Online sales hold onto the lead

Overall, Black Friday weekend sales in the UK were forecast to increase slightly in comparison to the previous year, by about 30 million, setting a new record for the November sales events. While online sales were forecast to remain the same, they were still estimated to be worth more than in-store sales. The leading categories consumers were planning to buy over Black Friday weekend 2023 were electricals, clothing and footwear, and toys. To tempt consumers into purchasing these items, the type of deals and discounts that they would most like were straightforward percentage discounts on everything, according to a 2023 survey. This was overwhelmingly the most popular choice, named by almost two-thirds of respondents. Steep discounts on selected items came second, and bundle deals, such as buy-one-get-one-free made up the top three.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Tugba Sabanoglu, Dec 20, 2023

Key insights

Forecast total Christmas sales in the UK
84.9bn GBP
Expected value of total spending over Black Friday weekend in the UK
8.74bn GBP
Expected online spending on Cyber Monday in the UK
1.55bn GBP
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Share of Black Friday searches coming from selected countries as of September 2021

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Leading countries searching for Black Friday in 2021

Expected offline and online spend over Black Friday weekend in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2023 (in billion GBP), by day

Shopping Behavior

Black Friday weekend: expected offline and online spend in the UK 2023

Preferred channels for Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases among consumers in the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2021

Shopping Behavior

Black Friday/Cyber Monday purchase channels in the UK 2021

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Christmas shopping in the United Kingdom (UK)
Holiday e-commerce in Western Europe
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Black Friday in the Netherlands
Black Friday in the Netherlands
Black Friday worldwide
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