Black Friday supercedes Christmas as peak festive shopping window
Black Friday has upstaged Christmas week itself as the most popular time of the year to buy festive gifts, according to a new poll.
Cost conscious consumers are increasingly opting to skirt queues and inflated price tags by grabbing their presents before the crush with one in five UK shoppers taking advantage of sales during Black Friday week.
The 23-27 November discount bonanza has become a staple of retailer’s calendars in recent years with Amazon leading the way with its own Black Friday ‘deals store’.
Software firm SAS quizzed 3,458 consumers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, eliciting that 25-29 year-olds are most likely to shop during the period.
Andrew Fowkes of SAS UK & Ireland commented: "Black Friday has changed market dynamics. If retailers don’t attract enough customers they lose out, if they can’t deliver on what they promise they lose out."
This Christmas promises to be a merry one for retailers with eight out of 10 consumers indicating that they plan on spending the same or more on gifts than last year, with the average amount that most are willing to spend on any one gift standing at £140.
Ranked by category the most popular gifts were perfume and cosmetics with half of all Britons planning to make such a purchase, followed by toys and games; books, music and movies; clothes and accessories and food.