Black Friday consumer card spending slightly down as deals spread throughout November

UK consumer card spending was marginally down by 0.63% year-on-year on Black Friday, partially impacted by retailers increasingly spreading their deals across the month of November.

However, transaction volumes were up 2.7% month-on-month compared to the equivalent Friday in October 2023, according to the latest data from Barclays, which sees nearly half of the nation’s credit and debit card spending.

Marc Pettican, Head of Barclaycard Payments, said: “We're now able to look at the full day of Black Friday sales data, and we can see that the total number of transactions has decreased slightly compared to 2022.

“This dip in sales volumes year-on-year is perhaps expected given the impact of the cost-of-living on Brits' discretionary spending and the trend towards launching discounts earlier in November.

“However, Black Friday was still significantly busier than usual for retailers, with transactions up 2.7% compared to the equivalent Friday in October 2023, demonstrating the continued popularity and importance of this shopping milestone.”