Over a quarter of those polled do not trust Black Friday discounts

Black Friday November 2023 – Prospero Commerce annual poll of UK consumers

Prospero Commerce’s latest findings from our annual Black Friday poll of consumers across the UK. We tried to understand the motivations and sentiment of UK shoppers and how they are adapting to the challenges they face at Christmas 2023.

Our headline findings show:

1. There’s an Increase in distrust - Over a quarter of those polled do not trust Black Friday discounts and this has increased considerably since last year

2. Multichannel behaviour has come to the fore with both pure store shopping reducing as well as those buying purely online reducing by over a third

3. A quarter of people are still triggered to buy on the spur of the moment by Black Friday offers – up by a quarter on last year.

4. Over 70% of shoppers expect some sort of free delivery, even if a threshold is applied, suggesting those retailers pulling back on free delivery will suffer

5. The cost-of-living crisis is really biting - the number of people happy to splash out has nearly halved compared to 2022

The 7 additional insights you need to know about Black Friday:

• More people bought something - there was a big drop (-22%) in those saying they hadn’t bought anything during Black Friday –and people were more likely to have bought for all their family

• 28% were suspicious that prices were artificially inflated before Black Friday

• 10% bought all they could afford and 26% bought nothing showing polarisation of behaviour compared to last year

• 40% held back purchases to buy something in a Black Friday discounted offer

• A quarter of people bought something as a treat to themselves which is a big jump on last year’s 9%

• The number of returns respondents expect to make has dropped over last year with nearly 60% saying they won’t return anything

• There is more worry about Christmas this year than last year – with 1/8th of people saying they are relying on Black Friday

About Prospero Commerce:

At Prospero Commerce, we take a holistic view of your digital challenges. We are able to rapidly re-define what your business needs for an increasingly digital-first world. We analyse at speed all aspects of your business to generate performance improvements that can be realised quickly. If you need an independent /external viewpoint – connect with us

If you’d like to find out more about our findings click on the link on the link here or alternatively, if you'd like to discuss your digital commerce challenges, please drop us a line at [email protected]

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