Black Friday: The High Street in the Age of Internet Shopping

Black Friday has once again arrived as the public look for their bargains ahead of commencing Christmas shopping and the festive season. At the mention of Black Friday we picture scenes of a few years previous of absolute chaos in stores, with hoards of customers crowded at shop entrances, waiting for them to open and pushing their way in, not caring who they take out along the way, but in 2025 and the age of online shopping, just how big is Black Friday weekend for in-person retail? 

 

Last year during Black Friday, online shopping sales reached a staggering £1.12 billion, and reported the biggest single online shopping day of the whole year. On top of this, this impressive spending figure was up 7.2% from the year previous, demonstrating the appetite for spending around this time. 

 

Typically the time when a lot of the public start to undertake their Christmas shopping, the Black Friday weekend sees hundreds of brands offer discounts, with categories such as Clothing & Footwear, Electricals & Technology and Cosmetics & Beauty seeing the highest amount of spending over the weekend.

The average spend per shopper taking part in Black Friday is reported to be around £430, and around 58% of UK adults planned to take part and spend this year. As seen, participation in Black Friday remains high, in particular with Millennial and Gen Z groups, who represent an important part of the general retail consumer landscape. 

 

When it comes to how consumers are purchasing goods around this time, there is a high demand for internet shopping with around 69% choosing to buy online rather than in store. However, figures from Black Friday in 2024 reported that UK footfall jumped an impressive +40.5% from the week previous, and total in-store footfall during Black Friday rose +4.8% year or year last year, marking a positive rebound for physical sales.

 

Although a large amount of consumers are spending online, there is still a case for a high street and consumer research has found that people are still braving the crowds on Black Friday to visit the high street. 

 

• 35% of in-store shoppers prefer to visit in person to assess the quality of the products 
• 27% enjoy the thrill of finding an unexpected deal from an unadvertised bargain 
• 25% of shoppers choose to shop in person to avoid shipping fees, particularly for larger and expensive items

This Black Friday we have utilised our AdMobilize cameras on a selection of our retail-based sites in our LFD Open Connect network to discover how busy retail areas are during one of the busiest periods of the retail calendar. Thanks to a strategic partnership with AdMobilize, we have the tools to precisely measure audience and traffic flows around our sites. This cutting-edge software enables real-time, detailed and sophisticated audience tracking and fully optimises our DOOH advertising measurements.

 

Date	Impression Figure
14th November	535,920
21st November	736,470
28th November (Black Friday)	881,250

Exploring the impressions data from actual Black Friday and the previous two Friday dates earlier in the month, we see a positive trend on the amount of impressions recorded. From the first Friday recorded compared to Black Friday we see an increase of +64%, and from the week prior to Black Friday to the actual day of, we see an increase of +20%. 

 

From our data we can clearly see that the appetite for in-person and in-store spending is still quite clearly there, with many people still choosing to visit the high street and retail locations. 

 

DOOH campaigns are exceptionally well suited for retail events such as Black Friday and brands activating around this time have the opportunity to gain the attention and interest of many receptive consumers visiting retail hubs. Besides this, by using DOOH, brands have the option to target audiences by using proximity planning, allowing them to influence consumers in key moments as they are out and about shopping. In short, DOOH allows a brand to capture the attention of the right audience, at the right time and in the right place. 

 

For more information on how your brand can leverage the magic of DOOH, please contact sales@openmedia.uk.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Sources: Retail Technology Innovation Hub, Barclays, Finder, Modern Retail, Fashion Network, AdMobilize