Black Friday spending across retail was up year on year, as John Lewis said air fryers and earphones help its small electricals sales soar 31%.
According to Nationwide, the number of purchases was up 2% on Black Friday last year and 12% on 2021’s discounting event, making it the busiest shopping day on record.
Over the course of the day, Nationwide members made 9.92 million transactions, the equivalent of more than 114 transactions every second.
Despite the rise in purchases, footfall was down 3.1% in stores on the day, according to analytics firm Sensormatic.
While high streets and shopping centres saw yearly declines in shopper traffic, retail parks footfall was up 1.9% year on year.
The event has increasingly moved online in recent years and ecommerce sales jumped 4.1% on 2022 to £1.04bn, according to Adobe Analytics.
This made this year’s Black Friday the biggest online day of 2023, according to the firm.
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Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said: “It’s clear that Black Friday remains hugely important, both for retailers in boosting their sales in the middle of the crucial holiday trading period, and for consumers for whom the deep discounts on offer present a great opportunity to make their money go further.”
The firm found that spending across 1 to 24 November rose 4.7% on last year at £9.6bn.
John Lewis said that toys were also a best seller on the day, and that gifting chocolate sales had surged 23% compared to last year.
The department store’s director of commercial operations Jon Williams said: “The Black Friday period has certainly not lost its appeal with our customers, with the breadth and depth of our unmissable offers giving them lots of choice.
“Alongside some of the traditional bestsellers like toys and tech, we’ve seen some really surprising items top the list this year, including silk pillowcases and roll neck jumpers.”
Customers had been predicted to buy fewer goods this Black Friday as the cost-of-living crisis was expected to hit spending.
UK shoppers are forecast to buy fewer goods during Black Friday sales this year as the cost-of-living crisis hits spending.
Data from GlobalData for Vouchercodes forecast that shoppers would spend nearly £8.7bn between Friday morning and Monday night. This equates to 0.4% more than last year, however, non-food inflation is currently running at 3.4%.
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