Black Friday online sales beat forecasts and increase by 11.7%

Black Friday online retail sales beat a forecasted 9% growth year-on-year to come in at £1.39bn (up 11.7%), according to data just released by IMRG.

Of that spend 39% was made on a smartphone making it the most popular platform for shopping beating the tablet and desktop, which while not entirely unexpected was considered unusual since Friday (24 November) was a normal working day and consumers would normally prefer to shop at their desktop on such days.

IMRG said the higher than expected spend on Black Friday itself had been a surprise given the day fell relatively early in the month, and before pay day for many consumers, and because many retailers had begun their promotions early.

Throughout November IMRG tracked 210 retailers, and the number running Black Friday specific promotions peaked at 168 on the day itself, while at the beginning of the week 77 retailers had been running Black Friday-specific promotions (and a further 37 had been running non-Black Friday promotions) with that number increasingly sharply on the Wednesday and Thursday (see graph).

"The Wednesday was particularly interesting, marking the day of the week when activity started to really accelerate as many switched on their campaigns – yet this was not reflected in the sales growth for that day, up just +2.8% and by far the lowest rate for any day that week; shoppers appeared to be far less responsive on that day.

"Even on Monday 13 November, a full week before Black Friday week began, there were 12 Black Friday-specific and 66 non-specific discounting campaigns live among the 210 retailers tracked," IMRG explained.