Future Research: UK Black Friday and Christmas Retail Sales
Future UK Black Friday and Christmas Sales Research
The 2024 edition of our annual look ahead to how UK consumers will engage with the key shopping quarter of the year. With Black Friday and the build up to Christmas on the horizon, we get a feel for how consumers are feeling, how and when they plan and budget, what they think they’ll spend, and on what.
HOW WE CONDUCTED THE RESEARCH
Through the Lens, Future’s proprietary research platform, we can survey our audiences and a wider nationally-representative sample of the UK adult population. For this research project, we heard from just under 1,000 Brits. Within that sample, 1 in 2 claimed readership or usership of a Future brand, either in print or online, allowing us to compare the Future audience against the UK population as a whole.
TOP FINDINGS
- Cost of living remains the number one concern for UK consumers
Brands and marketers will do well to keep this front of mind when planning in the run up to Christmas. Most people are not feeling any better off, but crucially they are planning for Christmas with this firmly in mind, rather than declaring Christmas ‘cancelled’. - Christmas is very much ‘on’
Remaining a key consumer anchor point in the year, especially during trickier times, Christmas retains it’s pulling power for the UK consumer. - Planning starts months ahead
The planning timeline for the majority of shoppers starts a few months out from the big day, and many factor in Black Friday deals as part of their gift buying strategy, as many explicitly seek value and deals to make budgets go as far as possible. - Self gifting ramps up in the new year
We have in this wave, that shoppers plans extend into the New Year and January sales period. Shoppers pre-Christmas focus is gifts for others and this pendulum swings to self-gifting to ease the January blues. - Consumer confidence remains
Our spend data in this survey is indicative of consumer confidence and intention. Very positively, what we see this year is that claimed intended spend is higher in 2024 than the previous two years. There’s lots of windows of opportunity to influence shoppers right now.
Future UK Research Christmas Sales 2024
Discover the full report here