Enthusiastic UK shoppers drive e-commerce sales up 7 percent during the five-day shopping event

UK shoppers shook off their high-price weariness and leaned into the annual shopping festival including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, driving online sales 7 percent higher than the same period a year ago, according to e-commerce data from Signifyd.

Although overall this is welcome growth there were some signs of shopper fatigue as Cyber Monday recorded a 4 percent drop. This was driven by a precipitous drop in order count which was down 10 percent on Cyber Monday.

Black Friday sales soared 15 percent higher than a year ago powered by more shoppers buying more items, more often, the commerce protection provider said. Specifically, the Black Friday numbers in the UK break down this way:

• 7 percent more consumers shopped at merchants on Signifyd’s Commerce Network of thousands of online retailers on Black Friday compared to a year ago
• They placed 16 percent more orders than last year
• They checked out with 5 percent more items per order in their digital shopping carts than on Black Friday 2023
• The average order value was 1 percent lower than a year ago

Taken together, the Black Friday numbers show that consumers conducting their holiday shopping continued to trade down — or buy more products at a lower price point, allowing them to buy more items but at a lower overall cost.

The trend was reversed come Cyber Monday as shoppers lost interest and had already purchased what they needed.

• 11 percent less consumers shopped at merchants on Signifyd’s Commerce Network on Cyber Monday compared to a year ago
• They placed 10 percent less orders than last year
• They checked out with 17 percent less items per order in their digital shopping carts than on Cyber Monday 2023
• The average order value was 7 percent higher than a year ago

The figures for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday underscore the importance of Black Friday in the minds of shoppers. As is always the case, some retail categories had a better Black Friday than others. While sales of outdoor and leisure items rocketed up by 53 percent over Black Friday 2023, luxury goods tumbled 31 percent compared to last year.

Bargain-hunting shoppers did not have as much luck as they did a year ago, according to Signifyd data. Only 13 percent of orders were accompanied by a discount code during Black Friday 2024, compared to 19 percent of orders a year ago. The drop could be an indication that merchants are finding they’ve reached their limit with the discounts they can offer while still preserving decent profit margins.

The size of available discounts did grow, however. The average discount this year during Black Friday reached 15.2 percent, up from 11.2 percent in 2023.

As for killer deals during the holiday season so far, Signifyd data showed that 25 percent of goods purchased were at their lowest price of the year at some point between November 1st and Cyber Monday. Another 22 percent of goods matched their lowest price of the year during that period.

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