There are a lot of figures coming out about Black Friday at the moment and some of them seem somewhat contradictory, but a picture is emerging of shoppers prepared to spend when attractive discounts are on offer.

Original data from RetailNext’s shopper traffic platform, which captures billions of store visits globally every year, showed Black Friday delivering a 40.5% week-on-week footfall boost (rising to +45% in London) as cost-conscious shoppers hunted for discounts. But given how weak retail has been in recent weeks, that big leap is less impressive than it seems and year-on-year, footfall was down 1.7%.

Yet there was good news for fashion — it was a top-performing category, with visits to clothing stores up 0.3% year-on-year and a massive 54.1% compared to the week before.

Shoppers on Black Friday will have received their November salaries and that clearly helped spending. 

Despite the dip in footfall compared to 2023, with shopper traffic on Black Friday itself down by the aforementioned 1.7% year-on-year, the week leading up to Black Friday (Monday 25-Friday 29 November inclusive) saw a 0.8% boost in footfall performance compared to last year. And there was a 3.4% boost on the Tuesday plus 3.3% on the Thursday. 

Gary Whittemore, Head of Sales EMEA & APAC at RetailNext, said that “while Black Friday discounting has become longer and more drawn-out, this hasn’t taken the shine off the event when it comes to driving footfall performance, with the lure of bagging a bargain still prompting shoppers to head into store to pick-up deals.  As well as representing value to shoppers looking for discounts on early Christmas gifts, the event not only helps retailers get ahead on festive trading, whilst also unlocking revenues from excess stock due to unseasonable weather earlier this year.”

Meanwhile, figures from Sensormatic Solutions’ ShopperTrak Analytics insights platform painted an overall brighter picture. It said total UK in-store traffic on Black Friday rose 4.8% year-on-year while visits to stores rose 17% in the week of Black Friday.

Retail parks were the top performing shopping destination with footfall up 8.3%. It said a survey of 1,000 consumers showed 49% of UK shoppers had planned to make an in-store purchase on the day, rising to 82% of Gen Z and 73% of Millennials. And Saturday 30 November was predicted to be the fifth busiest day of the entire UK Christmas shopping season in-store.

“What this data shows is that bricks-and-mortar retail continues to be resilient,” said Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic Solutions’ EMEA Retail Consultant. “The industry’s continued recovery is testament to the hard work that retail leaders have done to remind shoppers what’s special about in-store shopping.  They’ve embraced technology, improved their operations and delivered exceptional experiences, and that’s what’s driving in-store performance.”

Sumpter also said that “with less time between Black Friday and Christmas this year, we expect peak trading to be much more condensed in 2024 – and while this won’t have much effect on total visits or overall sales for the season, the calendar will play a role in when people show up in stores. With just 25 days to complete their holiday shopping — as opposed to the 31 they had in 2023 — shoppers will likely show up in bigger crowds on any given day than they otherwise would.  Retailers will need to make sure they’ve factored the potential for higher-than-average peak periods into their labour, logistics and merchandising plans.”