Almost 50 percent of consumers have said they will be spending less on Christmas presents this year according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Evri, the UK’s leading parcel delivery company the ahead of Black Friday and the festive shopping season. This comes as the cost-of-living crisis deepens for many households across the UK who are being hit by huge energy price increases and record levels of inflation.
Consumer are having to make tough choices around their spending and, as the Christmas period approaches and retailers have begun advertising their Black Friday deals, our report makes it clear that they will need to pull out all the stops to attract the increasingly savvy consumer with a third of our respondents only prepared to make a Black Friday purchase if the deal was ‘too good to be true.’ Others (33%) stated that they preferred to look for bargains all year, believing that there are better deals to be had at other times.
Sarah Taylor-Jones, Head of Marketing at Evri said “Historically Black Friday has been an eagerly awaited event for consumers because of special discounts, offers and engaging marketing. However, it seems that they are increasingly disillusioned with Black Friday and are seeking out bargains all year-round. This approach also helps them to spread the cost during these difficult economic times and the challenge for retailers is to keep potential customers engaged at all times.”
However, there was an exception to this for respondents in the 18–24-year-old category who are 3 times more likely to take advantage of the Black Friday deals and have no plans to reduce their spending this year. This may be due to the fact they are still living at home and less impacted by the economic stress but certainly those brands targeting that demographic should take note.
“Overall, whilst there may be a number of factors in play driving this change in attitude to Black Friday, we do know that 50% of those surveyed stated that they shop more online since the pandemic. This means that a greater percentage of the population is comfortable with researching prices online and buying them when they see them. At Evri, we see no sign of the growth in ecommerce slowing and have been preparing for our busiest season yet, investing heavily in our people, infrastructure and technology to ensure we can continue to provide a convenient, reliable and sustainable service,” concludes Sarah.
