British shoppers made an online shopping splash on Friday, spending a staggering US $ 9.8 billion, as per Adobe Analytics, which tracks over 85 per cent of the top 100 U.S. online retailers. This represents a 7.5 per cent surge compared to last year’s record of US $ 9.12 billion.
“Black Friday re-asserted its dominance this season with record spend of US $ 9.8 billion driven by new demand for the major sales’ day,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst for Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement. “The decline in online prices over the last year has created a favourable environment for consumers with strong discounts this season that are tempting even the most price conscious consumers.”
Holiday spending from 1st-24th November hit £ 9.6 billion, up 4.7 per cent from last year. Shoppers used Buy Now Pay Later services to spend £ 101 million on Black Friday, 9.7 per cent of the day’s total and 3.4 per cent more than in 2022. Click and collect orders increased to 8 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent the previous year, a 24.7 per cent jump in usage. London saw online spending rise by 4.6 per cent to £ 251 million.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) also predicts record-breaking spending during the November-December holiday shopping season, with an anticipated 3 per cent-4 per cent increase over 2022, totalling up to an estimated US $ 966.6 billion, figures that echo the pre-pandemic years from 2010 to 2019.
