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Black Friday online sales rose by 12.2% according to IMRG

Online shopping on Black Friday rose by 12.2% over a last year, according to retail analyst IMRG .

Total sales on the single day of Black Friday hit £1.23bn, IMRG said. The data was compiled in partnership with tracking company SimilarWeb.

Ahead of the discounting day, IMRG predicted sales would rise by 16%.

A survey of watch retailers by WatchPro last week found that 71% were holding Black Friday sales. 

Although the number of visitors to online retail sites on Black Friday continued to grow this year, the actual growth in sales revenue was held back by a lower-than-expected increase in the percentage of those visitors converting to buyers, the analyst says.

By contrast, each of the four days leading up to Black Friday (Monday 21 – Thursday 24 November) experienced strong sales growth of between 23.4% and 33.7%, with the increases in conversion rate much higher than that of Black Friday.

WatchPro’s survey found that 66% of watch retailers were holding sales lasting four days or more.

For the week as a whole (Monday 21 – Monday 28 November 2016), an estimated £6.45bn was spent on UK online retail sites (-4.8% below original forecast of £6.77bn) – as longer campaign durations, with new discounting deals promoted each day, served to spread the peak shopper spend over a longer period.

This raises the prospect of a £7bn online spend week for the Black Friday peak period in 2017.

Justin Opie, managing director at IMRG said: “Over the past few years Black Friday has consistently demonstrated a remarkable capacity for shifting in terms of size and scale. In 2014 the volume of orders exceeded forecast by over 30%, in 2015 we had empty shops and this year it seems to have become a genuinely extended period of heightened sales activity – taking place over a week (and more in some cases), which is not entirely dissimilar to the way that Xmas peak used to be online before Black Friday disrupted the established pattern in 2014.”

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