Retailers in the U.K. enjoyed a strong Black Friday despite forecasts that the holiday would leave shopping malls empty. Barclaycard reported an “outstanding” Black Friday in comparison to last year and noted that its transaction value was up 16.5 percent in comparison to the prior year with a rise in the volume of transactions of 7.2 percent, The Guardian reported.
Black Friday fell on the 29th of the month and occurred during the monthly payday for millions of workers. And even high street saw a rise in sales. Springboard, a retail data company, noted that footfall was 3.3 percent higher on Black Friday compared to the same day last year. Shopping centers preformed the best, with visitor numbers up 6.5 percent.
The company monitored numbers throughout the day and noted that higher footfall was at its peak at approximately 5 p.m. That could mean that consumers took part in the annual shopping rush at the end of the workday. And the figures could also “fuel a determination among retailers to keep Black Friday as a key retail event in the run-up to Christmas” per the news outlet.
Springboard’s insights director, Diane Wehrle, said per the report, “This positive result may well seal the deal for retailers in terms of their commitment to Black Friday moving forward, as they will have claimed shoppers early on in the Christmas trading period giving them the opportunity to steal a march on their rivals.”
The report also noted that Cyber Monday had a strong beginning and had transaction value up by 6.9 percent in comparison with last year. And, in the U.S., Cyber Monday was tracking to break eCommerce records and go down in history as the biggest day ever for online sales in the U.S. per reports earlier in the week. Online shoppers had been projected to spend $9.4 billion on Cyber Monday, approximately 19 percent more than the year before, after already having spent $7.4 billion on Black Friday.
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