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Black Friday footfall to increase by 20% on the daily average

UK shopper traffic on Black Friday is expected to rise by 20% on the daily average, according to global retail intelligence specialist, ShopperTrak.

With an estimated £3bn of sales expected to be made on Black Friday alone, shopper traffic is set to be up 20% on the daily average for November on Black Friday itself, with footfall continuing to rise over the Black Friday weekend, up 8% on the daily average.

The reason for the extended increase in footfall, ShopperTrak suggests, is two-fold, as Steve Richardson, UK and MEA Director at ShopperTrak, explained:

“As Black Friday has become an established event in the retail calendar, retailers are adapting their strategies around the event, so we’ve seen a shift not just in terms of when retailers are offering discounts but when consumer expect to receive them.”

“Over the past few years, we have seen retailers move away from a single day ‘flash sale’ model and, instead, are extending promotions out to longer periods of discounting, in a bid to ease congestion in stores, and lessen the impact of online traffic to websites – many of which crashed last year with the sheer volume of visitors.”

“At the same time, with disposable income being squeezed and rising inflation, consumers are now used to shopping around for deals and expect discounts to be offered by retailers over a longer period, so we have seen more retailers, such as House of Fraser, Curry’s PC World and Argos, increasingly adopt these extension strategies.”

“Longer periods of discounting remove some of the urgency for shoppers to head in-store to bag a bargain on Black Friday itself but, due to the extended period of discounting, we see a longer tail in increased footfall on the High Street, with shoppers traffic up 20% on the daily average on Black Friday with the peak continuing into the weekend, up 8% on the daily average.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tim Barton .