Cost of living to hamper Black Friday
In the United Kingdom, the timing of Black Friday has most relevance for its proximity to Christmas, offering consumers the chance to save money on their Christmas gifts. Indeed, finding good prices will be vital for many this Christmas season, as the economic situation looks worrying for many. In a 2022 survey, the most popular reason UK consumers gave for shopping on Black Friday was that it offers better prices and deals for gift buying. Almost three-quarters of UK consumers said that they will make a larger share of their gift purchases over Black Friday and Cyber Monday compared to the previous year in the UK in 2022.However, the main motivating factor for people to shop on Black Friday may also be the reason it struggles this year: people’s desire to save money. When asked, only about 30 percent of surveyed UK consumers said they would not cut back on their holiday spending in 2022. As a result, Black Friday weekend sales in the UK were forecast to fall in comparison to the previous year, something which has only happened once before in the past seven years, and that was in 2020 when retail was heavily affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.