Black Friday, a day and prolonged week of extended retail promotions has become increasingly popular also in the UK & I over the past decade both for online and brick-and mortal retail.

Despite the growing concerns about the pandemic situation, this year’s 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. Original research of over 1,000 UK shoppers in Sensormatic’s UK Retail: Shopper Sentiment Report showed 79% had planned to start Christmas shopping before the beginning of December, with a third (34%) starting gift buying in November, up +7 percentage points compared to 2020.

Despite not reaching pre-pandemic levels, Christmas has started to come early for retailers, who welcomed 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 in-store shopping, as consumer confidence has grown and demand for in-person shopping has risen.

Download our Black Friday Traffic Report to get more details about the traffic performance in different retail formats!