UK high street retailers enjoy Black Friday boost as shopper confidence grows
Black Friday UK high street shopper traffic saw a +35% uplift week-on-week, but early festive footfall failed to drive numbers to pre-pandemic levels, which were down -23% compared to 2019.
Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, whose footfall index captures over 40 billion global shopper visits annually, comments: “Despite not reaching pre-pandemic levels, Christmas has started to come early for high street retailers, who will be welcoming the Black Friday boost to trade that traditionally marks the start of the festive season.”
“Over the past 12 months, we have seen a slow but steady resurgence of high street shopping, as consumer confidence has grown and demand for in-person shopping has risen.”
Black Friday footfall was bolstered by an early surge in Christmas shopping, with consumers choosing to buy early in a bid to avoid supply chain disruption, out-of-stocks and shipping delays to festive gifts.
Research of 1,000 UK shoppers showed 79% had planned to start Christmas shopping before the beginning of December, with 34% starting gift buying in November, up +7 percentage points compared to 2020.
57% are more price sensitive now compared to before the pandemic, according to Pricer data. Shoppers hit the high street to make the most of the deals during the discounting event yesterday.
“Retailers will be hoping that initial Black Friday success doesn’t turn into a ‘blue Monday’ and that demand can be sustained into December, their most crucial trading period,” Sumpter says.
“That relies on smoothing out bumps in supply chains to reduce shelf gaps, so consumers can be confident the items they want will be available when they shop, as well as leveraging Click and Collect capabilities in-store to ease the burden on the digital fulfilment network when demand rises.”
Changing times
Bricks and mortar shopping on Black Friday has had mixed performance in the UK over the last five years, as consumer and retailers’ adoption of the event – with the likes of M&S and Next bowing out of the event in recent years – has shifted, along with the ongoing online migration of the discounting event.
After dipping to -3% YoY in 2018, in-store footfall on Black Friday bounced back to +9% YoY in 2019, before plummeting to -79% YoY in 2020 as the national Covid-19 lockdown shuttered stores and the event went 100% digital as shops remained shut.
