Black Friday shopping spree exceeds expectations

Analysts predict sales will beat Cyber Monday’s as Black Friday surpasses media hype.

According to IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), sales through retailers’ websites on Black Friday amounted to a staggering £810 million – well above the forecasted £555 million. When the full data is released, stores may well find that this figure is far above Cyber Monday’s results.

High sales may be due to Black Friday coinciding with many customers receiving pay

“The Black Friday sales saw Britain’s most savvy shoppers logging online in the early hours to secure the best bargains and spend their cash,” said Guy Mucklow, chief executive of shopping tracker Postcode Anywhere. “It is clear that because many of those deals spanned the payday weekend, many shoppers were already spent by the time Cyber Monday landed.”

Postcode Anywhere’s figures showed over 404,000 orders had been logged on Black Friday by 6pm, compared to a little over 267,000 by the same time on Cyber Monday’s sales. IMRG also found that the number of visits to shopping websites hit 181 million on Friday – 50 per cent higher than forecast.

Sales on Black Friday were so huge it has some analysts wondering whether it will overtake Boxing Day as the biggest shopping day of the year.

John Lewis reports best trading week on record

John Lewis said that Black Friday’s frenzied shopping spree gave them the best week of trading ever recorded in its 150 years of retailing history. From midnight on Friday, when their promotions began, they sold one tablet computer every second and a flat-screen TV every minute.

This was part of their 42 per cent rise in online sales compared to last year, leading to warehouse staff packing 87 per cent more parcels than last year.