Mobile shopping 2

Half of £6.7bn Black Friday online spend to come from mobile devices

Just over half (51%) of Black Friday spending, which is forecast at £6.77bn, will be completed through mobile devices, highlighting the importance of the devices to watch retailers.  

A report has forecast that the Black Friday peak period (21-28 November) will see £1.83bn spent on smartphones alone, with tablets making up the rest of mobile device spend.

The report, based on UK online retail sales data from IMRG and online retail site traffic volume data from SimilarWeb, states that there could be a 16% rise in spend on retail sites on Black Friday itself.

The peak period extends for seven days but Black Friday itself is set to see £1.27bn spending. The news comes two months after a report revealed less than half of UK retailers offered a mobile app.

Nitzan Tamari, vice president for marketing at SimilarWeb, commented: “Looking back at the 2015 holiday season, we can see that Black Friday was the highest online traffic day in the UK with a 34% increase in visits versus other days in the season.

“Boxing Day comes in at a close second. We are closely monitoring our desktop and mobile web data both in the UK and globally in order to understand if those trends continue this year, and we look forward to reporting on the Christmas Season shopping results with IMRG in a few weeks.”

Justin Opie, MD at IMRG, believes how the spend is spread across the days of the week depends on two things. He said: “Firstly, while there is no consensus on campaign durations among retailers, some are likely to try launching theirs earlier in the Black Friday week this year to secure their share of spend and steal a march on their competitors (indeed, some major retailers have already launched theirs).”

Opie added: “The other key factor concerns how shoppers actually respond – how early will they be willing to start their Christmas shopping, will many just wait until the Black Friday day itself, will they respond quickly to campaigns, pulling order volumes forward from Black Friday and potentially creating new peak days in the process? These are the questions that will shape how this period evolves in 2016.”

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