Advertisement

Sales up as shoppers grab early bargains instead of traditional Black Friday frenzy

Rex
Rex

Bargain hunters have turned their backs on the annual Black Friday overnight spending frenzy as the “discount season” lengthens into much of November.

Online sales last night were well down on last year and shopping centres were largely empty at opening time, in stark contrast to the “plasma TV riots” of previous years.

Transactions were down 24 per cent between midnight and 7am compared with last year although it is well up over the week as a whole, according to analysts PCA Predict.

The biggest fall was between midnight and 1am when transactions were down almost a third on 2016.

FOLLOW OUR BLACK FRIDAY LIVE COVERAGE HERE.

PCA head of marketing Chris Boaz said: “As of this morning, online sales are actually down compared to last year when many consumers shopped from midnight to 7am to bag a bargain.

“One of the primary reasons for this is due to the extended sales in the run up to Black Friday itself, which showed an increase of 11 per cent meaning consumers aren’t as pressed as they once were to shop on the day.”

Black Friday effective started in mid November this year when online retailer Amazon launched its promotion.

Jace Tyrrell, chief executive at New West End Company, said: “The day’s figures are still coming in but this year till receipts are expected to hit £154m - a significant 8 per cent increase on 2016.

“The Black Friday phenomenon has been so interesting to watch, and in recent years we’ve seen shoppers coming out a little later in the day to bag the bargains without the early morning wake up call. The huge morning queues seen in 2015 have started changing. We now see full days out starting a little later in the day, extended lunch times and Friday evening shopping expeditions, which spreads the spending out across the whole day.

“This is turbo boosted by domestic visitors making the most of the discounts at the end of a tough year and savvy international tourists getting the added benefit of the devalued pound. International spend is expected to make up a third of the overall spend in the West End today.”

Oxford Street was quiet on the morning of Black Friday (Rex )
Oxford Street was quiet on the morning of Black Friday (Rex )

There were very few shoppers on Oxford Street in the morning with images showing the pavements looking deserted.

Meanwhile store workers at Westfield Stratford City described Black Friday as the “quietest ever”.

In Argos, a worker said: “It was busier last year. There were massive queues. There may be a rush later but it’s very quiet so far, the quietest yet. Some people are using online though with our click and collect service.”

One customer who did arrive early for the bargains was Tanya Shipley, 22, who brought a smartphone at Argos.

Shoppers at the Westfield centre in Stratford (PA)
Shoppers at the Westfield centre in Stratford (PA)

She said: “I got up early to snap it up before work. It’s worth the effort there was a big discount on it. I was really surprised not to see more people though. A couple of years I tried to buy a TV with my boyfriend at another and it was carnage.”

It was a similar story at Carphone Warehouse where only a handful of customers showed up early.

Currys PC World was seeing steady trade but the store said it had plenty of stock and had not experienced an early rush.

The manager said he expected steady business throughout the day rather than an invasion.

However, it was a different story in Brazil where there were manic scenes as hundreds of people fought each other to get their hands on heavily discounted televisions.

Huge crowds swarmed a stack of Samsung Smart TVs and carried them away in a department store in Sao Paulo.

A London internet entrepreneur was marking Black Friday by handing out free money to everyone who signs up to his FreePostcodeLottery.com £1.

Chris Holbrook, of Finsbury Park in North London, has been running the website since 2011. Users enter their email, their postcode and get a daily letter asking them to check if their postcode has been drawn.

Prizes of more than £1,000 a day are paid.

So far, FreePostcodeLottery.com has given away nearly £500,000.

Mr Holbrook, 38, said the Black Friday giveaways have made it difficult for smaller firms to attract attention at this time of year.

He was handing out £1 coins at Angel Central, Islington between 10am and midday on Black Friday – near retailers such as Gap, Sainsbury, Marks & Spencer, Next and Boots.

Mr Holbrook said: “Each year shops do this crazy thing where they sell stuff for less than it cost, just to get people in the stores. Since we are already free, we can’t do that, so we’ve decided to go one better. I might be mad. It might cost me a fortune. But just once I’m going to try it.”